Smile?

A not that recent study discovered that horses can tell when you are smiling, and recognize it as a good thing. This is quite remarkable given that smiling, as a gesture, is unique to humans and in other predators it's a threat.

Now, it seems, goats have demonstrated the same ability.

For a domesticated animal, knowing when the human is happy is probably a pretty useful skill. However, until now, it's been assumed to be limited to working animals, who have to be able to read our social skills. Goats, while sometimes trained to work, generally are more like cows (although the increasing use of them as kudzu control...)

The study was a simple one. They scattered a bunch of photos in a pen full of goats and discovered that the goats spent more time looking at the smiling ones (so we know it's smiles, not any other cues).

Life lesson? Smile to your critters. They probably know what it means.