DogFACS

The Dog Facial Action Coding System Manual

2013

Bridget M. Waller1
Cátia Caeiro1
Kate Peirce1
Anne M. Burrows2,3
Juliane Kaminski1

1Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Portsmouth, UK

2Department of Physical Therapy, Duquesne University, US
3Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, US
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Table of contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 3 
1. Upper Face Action Units .................................................................................................................. 10 
  ACTION UNIT 101: INNER BROW RAISER ................................................................................ 10 
  ACTION UNIT 143: EYE CLOSURE and ACTION UNIT 145: BLINK ...................................... 12 
2. Lower Face Action Units .................................................................................................................. 13 
  ACTION UNIT 109 + 110: NOSE WRINKLER AND UPPER LIP RAISER ................................. 13 
  ACTION UNIT 110: UPPER LIP RAISER ...................................................................................... 15 
  ACTION UNIT 12: LIP CORNER PULLER ................................................................................... 18 
  ACTION UNIT 116: LOWER LIP DEPRESSOR ........................................................................... 20 
  ACTION UNIT 118: LIP PUCKER ................................................................................................. 22 
  ACTION UNIT 25: LIPS PART ....................................................................................................... 24 
  ACTION UNIT 26: JAW DROP ................................................................................................... 25 
  ACTION UNIT 27: MOUTH STRETCH ......................................................................................... 26 
3. Action Descriptors ............................................................................................................................. 28 
  ACTION DESCRIPTOR 19: TONGUE SHOW ........................................................................... 28 
  ACTION DESCRIPTOR 33: BLOW ............................................................................................. 29 
  ACTION DESCRIPTOR 35: SUCK ............................................................................................... 29 
  ACTION DESCRIPTOR 37: LIP WIPE ......................................................................................... 30 
  ACTION DESCRIPTOR 137: NOSE LICK ................................................................................... 30 
4. Ear Action Descriptors ...................................................................................................................... 32 
  EAR ACTION DESCRIPTOR 101: EARS FORWARD ............................................................... 33 
  EAR ACTION DESCRIPTOR 102: EARS ADDUCTOR ............................................................. 35 
  EAR ACTION DESCRIPTOR 103: EARS FLATTENER ................................................................ 36 
  EAR ACTION DESCRIPTOR 104: EARS ROTATOR ................................................................. 38 
  EAR ACTION DESCRIPTOR 105: EARS DOWNWARD .......................................................... 38 
5. Head and Eye Direction Codes .................................................................................................... 40 
6. Gross Behaviour Codes ................................................................................................................... 42 
7. Other Useful Codes ........................................................................................................................... 43 
8. Action Units Not Identified In Dogs ............................................................................................... 43 
GLOSSARY: ............................................................................................................................................... 45 
REFERENCES: ............................................................................................................................................ 46 

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by a WALTHAM® Foundation Research Grant to Bridget Waller, Juliane
Kaminski and Anne Burrows.

We would like to thank:

- The Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology (and all participating dog owners) for
allowing us to use their dogs footage, and Katrin Schumann who helped collect footage.
- The shelters for access to film their dogs: Portsmouth City Dog Kennels, Hilsea, UK; RSPCA
Southridge Animal Centre, London, UK; Second Chance Animal Rescue, Southampton, UK; The
Dog’s Trust, West London, UK; The Welfare of Stray Dogs Animal Shelter, Mumbai, India; Wood
Green, The Animal’s Charity, Godmanchester, UK.
- Grace Cannell, Jenny Hynds and Linda Scheider for helpful comments on the manual.
- Inês Martins for drawing anatomical images.
- Alex Komechak, Alissa Zalneraitis, David Lum, Leanne Lanteigne, Michael Woon, Riley Burnham,
Shaun Horne, Stuart Blacklock and Yashvin Awootar for permission to use their videos from
www.youtube.com.
- The collaborators who helped with the reliability assessment of DogFACS, Jamie Whitehouse
and Linda Scheider.

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Introduction

The Facial Action Coding System or FACS (Ekman & Friesen, 1978; Ekman et al., 2002) is an
anatomically based coding system for the scientific measurement of facial movements and
facial expressions in humans. FACS uses an understanding of how facial muscles move to
describe facial movements (Action Units: AUs) in terms of appearance changes relating to facial
landmarks and characteristics.

FACS has been modified for use with several non-human animals, including ChimpFACS for
chimpanzees (Vick et al., 2007), MaqFACS for rhesus macaques (Parr et al., 2010), GibbonFACS
for hylobatids (Waller et al., 2012) and OrangFACS for orangutans (Caeiro et al., 2013). Here, we
present the first modification of FACS for use with a non-primate species, the domestic dog
(Canis familiaris), the Dog Facial Action Coding System (DogFACS). Dogs are an interesting
model for investigating the evolution of cognitive and communicative abilities, as selection
processes during domestication may have led to functionally equivalent skills in dogs and
human (analogies) or even to the co-evolution of dogs’ cognitive abilities with those of humans.

It is important that scientists use validated, anatomically based systems for recording facial
expression. First, facial expressions are processed as whole units in an automatic, streamlined
manner which makes it difficult to see the detail accurately (Calder et al., 2000). Second,
human observers tend to categorise facial expressions in terms of emotion, which can affect
how comparisons between species are made (Waller et al., 2007). The Facial Action Coding
System helps counter these problems by using standardised descriptions associated with
underlying muscle movement.

The facial muscles of the primate species for which FACS has previously been modified exhibit
great similarity (Burrows et al., 2006; Burrows et al., 2009; Burrows et al., 2011) and so many of the
same AUs have been found in all species. Domestic dogs, however, are less closely related and
thus there are more differences in the facial musculature (Evans, 1993). Where muscles are
homologous between dogs and the other FACS species we have used the same code to
describe the movement. However, where a particular movement differs in muscular basis in
humans and dogs, but the movement nevertheless is similar, we have added “1” before the
numeric codes used for the original FACS. For instance, AU1 in humans is AU101 in dogs and
AU43 in humans is AU143 in dogs, as both movements have a different muscular basis, but are
visually very similar.

This manual is designed to be a usable research tool by providing a systematic coding system.
For each AU, the following is given:

A. Description of the muscle(s) underlying the AU. Where this is unknown, the movement is
described as an Action Descriptor (AD). See Figure 1 for an overview of the facial muscles in
dogs.

B. Appearance changes caused by the movement, illustrating each movement with

photographs, videos and diagrams. See Figure 2 for an overview of facial landmarks, Figure 3 for
a map of facial muscle movements on the dog face and Figure 4 for anatomic directional
definitions.

C. Minimum criteria to code the AU.

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As with all the FACS systems, DogFACS requires certification to use. The final test can be
downloaded from www.DogFACS.com after obtaining a password from the DogFACS
development team.

Frontalis

Retractor anguli occuli lateralis

Levator anguli occuli medialis

Orbicularis occuli

Levator nasolabialis

Levator labii maxillaris

Caninus

Mentalis
Buccinator

Orbicularis oris

Zygomaticus

Platysma

Fig. 1 Identification of facial musculature in dogs (Image by Inês Martins; Evans, 1993).

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Frontal region 

Superciliary protuberance 

Browridge 
Third eyelid 

Stop 
Infraorbital region 

Muzzle 

Nasal philtrum 

Glabella 

Pinna (external ear) 

Nasal ala 

Nasal sulcus 

Mouth corner 

Mental region 

Fig. 2 Facial landmarks in dogs. Upper image: Rostral view. Lower image: Profile view.

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LAOM

OOc
RAOL
LN

LLM

C
OOr

Fig. 3 Diagram representing the direction of muscle contraction with the labels as approximate
points of origin. B, buccinator; C, caninus; F, frontalis; LAOM, levator anguli occuli medialis;
LLM, levator labii maxillaris; LN, levator nasolabialis; M, mentalis; OOc, orbicularis
occuli; OOr, orbicularis oris; P, platysma; RAOL, retractor anguli occuli lateralis; Z, zygomaticus.

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Dorsal

Caudal
Rostral
Dorsal
Ventral

Cranial
Caudal

Ventral

Fig. 4 Spatial representation of directional terminology. Cranial and caudal: towards or near the
cranium or tail, respectively, along the long axis of the trunk. Rostral: towards the apex of the
nose, along the long axis of the head. Caudal: towards the back of the head, opposite to rostral.
Dorsal: towards or near the back or top of the head. Ventral: towards or near the abdomen or
underside of the head. These terms can be combined to describe a movement of a limb or
body part in other directions, as for example: dorsocaudal, ventrocaudal, dorsocranial,
ventrocranial.

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Table 1 Comparison of action units and the underlying facial muscles in humans (Ekman et al.,
2002) and dogs (Evans, 1993).

Action Units Facial Musculature

Humans Dogs Humans Dogs
Upper Face
1 Inner brow raiser 101 Inner brow raiser Frontalis (medial) Frontalis is present but it does
not seem to raise the brow
region. Levator anguli occuli
2 Outer brow raiser Not observed Frontalis (lateral) medialis raises the inner brow
region.
Procerus, corrugator
4 Brow lowerer Not observed supercilii, depressor Not present
supercilii
5 Upper lid raiser Not observed Levator palpebrae Not described
Observed only with 143 and
6 Cheek raiser
145 Orbicularis occuli Present
7 Lid tightener Not observed
43 Eye closure 143 Eye closure Relaxation of levator
Orbicularis occuli
45 Blink 145 Blink palpebrae
Lower Face
109+110 Nose wrinkler and
Levator labii superioris
9 Nose wrinkler upper lip raiser - nose wrinkler Levator nasolabialis, caninus,
alaeque nasi
hard to code independently levator labii maxillaris
10 Upper lip raiser 110 Upper lip raiser Levator labii superioris
11 Nasiolabial furrow
Not observed Zygomaticus minor Not present
deepener
12 Lip corner puller 12 Lip corner puller Zygomaticus major Zygomaticus
13 Sharp lip puller Not observed Caninus Present
14 Dimpler Not observed Buccinator Present
15 Lip corner depressor Not observed Depressor anguli oris Not present
16 Lower lip depressor 116 Lower lip depressor Depressor labii inferioris Platysma
17 Chin raiser Not observed Mentalis Present
Incisivii labii (superioris
18 Lip pucker 118 Lip pucker and inferioris), Only orbicularis oris present
orbicularis oris
20 Lip stretcher Not observed Risorius Not present
22 Lip funneler Not observed Orbicularis oris Present
23 Lip tightener Not observed Orbicularis oris Present
24 Lip presser Not observed Orbicularis oris Present
Orbicularis oris, Orbicularis oris, caninus,
25 Lips part 25 Lips part depressor labii inferioris, levator labii maxillaris, levator
levator labii superioris nasolabialis, platysma
26 Jaw drop 26 Jaw drop Non-mimetic: masseter, temporalis, pterygoid and
27 Mouth stretch 27 Mouth stretch digastricus

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Action Units Facial Musculature

Humans Dogs Humans Dogs
Miscellaneous Action Units
8 lips towards each other Not observed Orbicularis oris Present
21 Neck tightener Not observed Platysma Present
38 Nostril dilator
Observed during sniff (AD40) Nasalis Not present
39 Nostril compressor

Table 2 Comparison of the action descriptors in humans and dogs.

Action Descriptors
Humans Dogs
19 Tongue show 19 Tongue show
29 Jaw thrust Not observed
30 Jaw sideways Not observed
31 Jaw clencher Not observed

32 Lip bite Not observed

33 Blow Not observed
34 Puff 34 Puff
35 Cheek suck 35 Cheek suck
36 Tongue bulge Not observed
37 Lip wipe 37 Lip wipe

Not described 137 Nose lick

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