My 1.5 year old puppy always looks so depressed in the photos that my parents send me. I've been gone 5 months (but visiting next month). I'm sure I'm not imagining it. I know when he's happy, he looks like he's smiling, open mouth, sparkly eyes, tongue out, huge grin. In the photos, his mouth is an upside down U.
Does he miss me? Or am I anthropomorphising?
You are definitely anthropomorphizing... at least some. Probably projecting a bit too (i.e. projecting your missing him onto him as being sad). Dogs express emotion differently than humans. We can often misunderstand those signs. My girl always has a bit of a sad look to her, even when she's eating a major treat, or doing other things I know she enjoys very much.
Take a look at these articles for some more information:
Could it be that he's a bit scared of the camera?
I have this problem regularly as I foster dogs for a dog rescue. A lot of dogs really don't care for a big reflective glass THING in their faces, and turn away or look utterly woeful as soon as you get the camera out.
This is usually fairly easy to train out : if the camera means AMAZING TREATS (eg chopped chicken or fresh liver cake) or SQUEAKY BALL!!! the dog will soon look much happier. When you visit, perhaps you could give this training a go with whoever is currently caring for your puppy, so that you will have more happy puppy photos while you are away and don't have to worry so much in future?
