“Puppy-dog eyes didn’t just evolve for us, in domestic dogs,” says comparative anatomist Heather Smith. Her team’s work has thrown a 2019 finding that the muscles in dogs’ eyebrows ...

A cute dog begs for food at the kitchen table. Wild coyotes have the same facial muscles as domesticated dogs, allowing them to pull similarly cute faces. fotyma/Getty The study examined the ...

African wild dogs might use facial expressions to communicate with each other as they hunt in packs on the savanna. Arno Meintjes via Flickr under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 DEED Puppy-dog eyes are ...

Coyotes can do ‘puppy dog eyes’ too: comparing interspecific variation in Canis facial expression muscles. Royal Society Open Science, 2024; 11 (10) DOI: 10.1098/rsos.241046 ...

When a dog stares at you with big, sad, puppy dog eyes, it's easy to imagine that this adorable look is meant specifically to melt your heart (and score some treats).