How does my dog know to look at my face?

[AWoodside]

Dogs and people co-evolved, they share lots of interesting mixed behaviors.

[Lestat]

What about lions? I suppose in a sense, we've co-evolved with them too and many other animals. I'm not sure this explains it though. Many animals have an affinity for looking into the eyes of another animal. Some view this as a sign of aggression. I forget which animal it is, but upon encountering it, the last thing you want to do is look it in the eye for this will cause it to attack.

[foal]

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I forget which animal it is, but upon encountering it, the last thing you want to do is look it in the eye for this will cause it to attack.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm going to guess that it tends to be prey rather than a predator? I think prey animals tend to be more averse to being starred at in the face. I know I've heard of some bird species that definitely don't like this.

[Lestat]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I forget which animal it is, but upon encountering it, the last thing you want to do is look it in the eye for this will cause it to attack.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm going to guess that it tends to be prey rather than a predator? I think prey animals tend to be more averse to being starred at in the face. I know I've heard of some bird species that definitely don't like this.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think so. I thought I heard bears were like this, and I'm pretty sure some apes are as well. If ya think about it, humans are like this. If you turn to see a stranger looking you in the eye, I don't know about you, but my first reaction is, "wtf you looking at?". In other words, it's kind of a sign of aggression unless immediately accompanied by some other signal which is non-threatening.

[thylacine]

Your cat has been secretly training your dog.

[mbillie1]

I also wonder this about my cat

[kerowo]

Maybe it's a mammal thing.

[tame_deuces]

Facial recognition seems like a good adaptive trait, so having it probably means you survive easier and pass along your genes easier. As for why it looks at your face, most mammals share some facial and social similarities.

Why you look at its face, as someone said earlier, is actually just as good a question.

[ALawPoker]

Dogs greet face to face. That's a handshake in their culture. That's why they like to jump on people. He's trying to get to your face to say hi. (So incidentally, a good habit to get into is to lower yourself to him when you come home, if you don't like him jumping on people.)

Why is this their greeting? I would guess that it's just a basic reflection of dogs' relative lack of sophistication. They naturally form this behavior, because it's inherently reciprocal.

Dogs communicate well with each other, mostly through body language, and rely on communication to hunt. So it seems natural that they learn to ascribe importance to the eye area, since their form of communication will rely upon them looking at each other. Since the exchange is reciprocal, it just seems naturally efficient that they would learn to fixate on each other's face rather than any other part of the body. (If you're looking at his chest, you don't know when exactly he stops looking at/communicating with you.)

I'm not an expert on this stuff, but that's my basic assumption for why they evolve that instinct.

[soon2bepro]

big baloons with a painted eye on it are used to scare off birds.

Animals are not as stupid as you think.

For example, dogs can get quite agitated if a stranger stares them in the eyes.