Several breeds are famous for their smiles, perhaps the best known being the Samoyed and its iconic “Sammy Smile.”

The AKC also mentions a few of them:

“The Kromfohrlander… has a distinctive ‘smile‘ and will sneeze to greet you.”

From the AKC American Eskimo Dog breed page:

“Distinctive traits include a dense, sparkling white coat with a lion-like ruff around the chest and shoulders; a smiling face, with black nose, lips, and eye-rims that convey a keen, intelligent expression; and a plumed tail carried over the back.”

Some breed standards actually include “the smile” in their verbiage:

From the Coton’s standard:

“The Coton de Tulear is characterized by a natural long, white, dry, profuse, cotton-like coat, rounded lively dark eyes, black on white ‘joie de vivre’ expressive smile and witty personality.”

And, of course, the Samoyed’s AKC standard:

“Lips – Should be black for preference and slightly curved up at the corners of the mouth, giving the ‘Samoyed smile.'”

We, too, have written about grins in various breeds on these pages: the Coton de Tulear, Pharaoh Hound, Dalmatian,  Lancashire Heeler, and of course the Samoyed.

In this post, we add to the list by talking about the “Chessie Smile,” and we suspect this might surprise a few readers.

Chesapeake Bay Retrievers have a snickering grin they use in a variety of situations—a unique, endearing smirk that these dogs display especially when they’re feeling silly or pleased with themselves. Some owners report that they don’t even need to see their dogs to know they’re smiling, because they can hear the snorkling or snorting sound Chessies make when they wrinkle up their noses to flash their pearly whites.

Here is one perspective:

Here is another:

While we don’t have permission to share any of the actual photos of smiling Chessies, you can see them by clicking on the links here, here, here, and here.

Image by Benbas/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0