Researchers from Italy's University of Bari Aldo Moro say that your dogs can read your emotions just by looking at your face -- and if you look like you're in a bad mood, you can stress them out.
The scientists exposed 26 hungry dogs to pictures of people making various expressions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.
The pooches who saw human faces displacing stronger emotional states like fear, anger, and happiness turned their heads to the left. What's more, their heart rates spiked, and those dogs also didn't return to their food right away.
On the other hand, dogs that saw humans displaying a neutral look or one of surprise were apparently not threatened by those expressions. Consistently, they turned their heads to the right: the scientists determined the dogs always turned their heads in the opposite direction of the portion of their brains that were affected: in other words, the right hemisphere deals with "fight or flight," and so a stressed dog will look left.
A dog at peace will turn its head to the right.