If you have a dog, you might think you have a strong connection with them.
But according to a new study, you’ve probably been reading your pet’s emotions all wrong.
Although humans and dogs have a unique bond, scientists from Arizona State University say that we are terrible at understanding canine emotions.
Participants were shown videos of a dog reacting to positive situations, such as seeing their lead, or negative situations such as being presented with the dreaded vacuum cleaner.
Instead of actually trying to understand what the dog is feeling, the researchers found that people tend to ‘project human emotions onto their pets’.
This means we are much more likely to assume a dog is happy or sad based on what’s going on around them, rather than how they are behaving.
Study co-author Professor Clive Wynne says: ‘Our dogs are trying to communicate with us, but we humans seem determined to look at everything except the poor pooch himself.’
So, do you have what it takes to be the next Dr Dolittle?
Can you tell what this dog is thinking? A study shows that humans are bad at understanding dog emotions and often make assumptions based on context rather than the dog’s behaviour
Humans and dogs have evolved together over thousands of years and have developed a connection found nowhere else in the animal kingdom.
Studies have shown that dogs are able to detect human emotions with a high level of accuracy and can even smell stress or anxiety in our sweat and breath.
However, the researchers point out that people often assume their dogs have similar emotional reactions to themselves.
Study co-author Holly Molinaro, a PhD student at Arizona State University, says: ‘I have always found this idea that dogs and humans must have the same emotions to be very biased and without any real scientific proof to back it up, so I wanted to see if there are factors that might actually be affecting our perception of dog emotions.’
In the first trial, 383 participants were shown a video of a dog in either a ‘happy-making’ or ‘less happy’ situation.
In the happy situation, the dog was offered something that it liked, such as its lead or a treat, and in the less happy scenario, it was either given a gentle chastisement or was shown something it disliked, such as the hoover.
In this test, participants successfully identified that the dog was happy when being shown its lead and that it was unhappy when it was shown the hoover.
However, in a second trial, 485 participants were shown a clip that had been edited to keep the footage of the dog’s reaction the same but change the scenario.
When shown a clip of a dog being shown the vacuum cleaner, participants in the trial rated the dog as more stressed. However, the researchers found that this was based on an assumption rather than looking at the dog itself (file photo)
This revealed that people were making their assumptions about the dogs’ emotions, based on everything but how the dog was actually behaving.
Ms Molinaro says: ‘People do not look at what the dog is doing, instead, they look at the situation surrounding the dog and base their emotional perception on that.
‘You see a dog getting a treat, you assume he must be feeling good. You see a dog getting yelled at, you assume he’s feeling bad.’
In the video above, the footage has been edited so that the dog’s reaction is the same in both clips.
But because the dog appears next to a hoover in one clip and with a lead in the other, most people assume that the dog is experiencing a different emotional response.
‘In our study, when people saw a video of a dog apparently reacting to a vacuum cleaner, everyone said the dog was feeling bad and agitated,’ says Ms Molinaro.
‘But when they saw a video of the dog doing the exact same thing, but this time appearing to react to seeing his leash, everyone reported that the dog was feeling happy and calm.’
This means that people generally aren’t as good at understanding their pets as we might like to assume.
In the trial, the same clip of a dog was edited so that it appeared to be responding either to a vacuum cleaner or its lead. Participants said that the dog was happy when shown with its lead and unhappy when shown with the vacuum cleaner, despite the two clips showing the same behaviour
Previous studies have shown that dogs use blinking as a sign they are trying to communicate with their owners. Licking, meanwhile, was linked to an increased level of stress
However, that does not necessarily mean it is impossible for us to try and understand our dogs.
Previous studies have suggested that humans are able to distinguish dog’s emotions from slight changes in their faces.
One study, conducted by the University of Florida and Harvard University, showed that humans can identify feelings of happiness, sadness, curiosity, fear, disgust and anger in three different breeds.
What is important is that dog owners actually pay attention to what their dog is doing, rather than just making assumptions based on context alone.
Ms Molinaro concludes: ‘We need to be humbler in our understanding of our dogs. Once we can start from a basis of understanding our biases, we can begin to look at our pups in a new light.
‘Every dog’s personality, and thus her emotional expressions, are unique to that dog. Really pay attention to your own dog’s cues and behaviors.’
IS DOG INTELLIGENCE AKIN TO HUMAN INTELLIGENCE?
Dogs’ abilities to learn are varied, much like humans’ abilities, according to WebMD.
Dogs that were bred in order to hunt, retrieve or herd are faster learners because they are inherently quicker on their feet.
Similarly, dogs bred to guard livestock or track scents are usually slower.
A new study has found that mental deterioration among older dogs can be staved off if the dogs complete brain teasers on a touch screen (file photo)
The key in training your dog, WebMD says, comes down to knowing what your dog was bred to accomplish.
However, all dogs can be trained to follow simple commands, according to trainers.
WebMD reports that the following are the most naturally intelligent dog breeds:
- Border Collie
- Poodle
- German Shepherd
- Golden Retriever
- Doberman Pinscher
- Shetland Sheepdog
- Labrador Retriever
- Papillon
- Rottweiler
- Australian Cattle Dog
