According to Science, a dog may just be able to snuff out a good boy from a bad one, and we are not talking about other dogs…
It was found in a study that dogs can actually recognize a ‘bad person.’
As dogs are very socially aware — they are also able to sense when you are happy, sad or angry.
And thanks to research, dogs can also sense when a person is untrustworthy according to a few key cues a person gives.
Published in the journal Animal Cognition, the study was conducted by a team led by Akiko Takaoka of Kyoto University in Japan.
The study involved presenting a group of 34 dogs with three rounds of what was called ‘the pointing gesture.’
In the first round, humans pointed to dogs towards a container of food — and in the second round, they were pointed to an empty container.
The third round was the same round as the first but this time — less dogs responded to the cue.
After these rounds, a new experimenter repeated the first phase once more and the dogs trusted them — following the gesture.
The report goes on to say:
“These results suggest that not only dogs are highly skilled at understanding human pointing gestures, but also they make inferences about the reliability of a human who presents cues and consequently modify their behavior flexibly depending on the inference.”
Takaoka continued, saying: “Dogs have more sophisticated social intelligence than we thought. This social intelligence evolved selectively in their long life history with humans.”
And in a study reported last year, dogs are also suggested to know when a human is being a rude towards their owner.
The experiment, which was published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews, dog owners were asked to act out a scenario where they requested help from others while their dogs watched.
It was discovered that dogs would refuse treats from participants who behaved unkindly towards their owners — they would much rather grab a snack from those who were “good boys and girls.”
Did you also know that your doggo can smell your feelings?
Your pupper is able to pick up on subtle changes in your scent — which allows him to know how you are feeling any certain day like when you are nervous or afraid. Dogs also can sense when a member of the household is pregnant or has a disease.
And speaking of smarts, did you also know your dog is as smart as a 2-year-old toddler? Both understand the same number of words and gestures, which clocks in at around 250!
And believe it or not — your dog does have a sense of time, and really, really, misses you when you are gone.
Dogs are able to pick up on our routines as well as habits — they also understand how much time has passed.
And in one study, it was found that dogs respond differently to their owners being gone for different lengths of time.
So folks, when you get home this evening — be sure to hold your pup close and tell them about your day, odds are they would love to hear about it.
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