Puppy shows off new braces

A Michigan veterinarian has earned the title of “doggie dentist” for his practice of fitting dogs with braces and performing root canals.

Harborfront Hospital for Animals shared photos of a golden retriever puppy ‘smiling’ after being fitted with a set of braces.

While it may be unusual to see a dog adorned with braces, the animal hospital stressed the importance of animals’ dental health in the Facebook post.

“Orthodontia in pets is normally not for aesthetic purposes, but because of health concerns,” they wrote.

The dog shown in the photograph was named Wesley and needed braces to realign his teeth so he would be able to close his mouth properly.

The Hospital later reported that Wesley was recovering well as his photo quickly became popular on the internet, gaining almost 300,000 shares on Facebook.

Happy or angry? Horses can tell!

According to a British research, it has been found that horses are able to distinguish between angry and happy faces.

Psychologists at the University of Sussex studied how 28 horses reacted to photographs of positive and negative human facial expressions. The horses were shown pictures of happy and angry unfamiliar male faces, with no training given to them beforehand.

When looking at the angry faces, the horses viewed more with their left eye — behaviour normally linked with perceiving negativity. Their heart rate also quickened and they showed more stress-related signs, the study, which is published in Biology Letters, found.

The research concluded that the response suggested the horses had a functional understanding of the angry faces they were seeing.

Amy Smith, who co-led the research, said, “In this context, recognising angry faces may act as a warning system, allowing horses to anticipate negative human behaviour such as rough handling.”

Research has shown that many species, including dogs, view negative events with their left eye due to the right brain hemisphere’s specialisation for processing negative signs.

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 16th, 2015