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According to National Geographic research, at times our dogs act more like a human than they do a dog.
I can relate to that. I have a pug (Molly), that my mom swears is more human than dog. I swear she understands everything I say, she minds better than a toddler, she knows what I need (like a hug) and she even talks back sometimes… LOL!!
National Geographic research is saying that dogs can read a human’s facial expressions, they get jealous, they are able to understand and share our feelings, and they watch television like humans do. My mom has a pug named Sassy that watches television… especially when an animal is on it. According to National Geographic, dogs act like humans because they have picked up our traits as they’ve evolved from wolves to tamed pets.
Laurie Santos, director of the Yale Comparative Cognition Laboratory said, “paying attention to us, getting along with us, [and] tolerating us has led to particular characteristics that often mirror ours.”
Recent studies have also shown that dogs watch their human interact with other people… but are they ignoring or shuning people who are mean to their owners? Possibly, according to National Geographic.
New studies are also discovering that dogs can follow a human gaze into blank space, if they are not trained. Following a gaze is a natural instinct for a dog because it gives them information, like if there is a threat to their human or if their human has something good to eat. Previously, we thought dogs would only follow a human gaze if food or toys were involved, but new studies are proving that theory wrong.
Future studies will include studying how dogs, both young and older dogs, memorize tasks and whether or not the dog will remember the task months after it was taught to them.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150720-dogs-animals-science-pets-evolution-intelligence/
Another interesting study, done by National Geographic, showed that dogs yawn more in response to their owners’ yawns that they do to a strangers’ yawn.
This study suggests that dogs are emotionally connected to their owners.
This study used 25 pet dogs and had them watch both their owners and a person they did not know yawn or pretend to yawn.
Scientists wanted to study and see if the yawning in the dogs was caused from mild stress or as a type of empathy.
The researchers’ watched the dogs’ heartbeats while conducting the experiments, but saw no major differences in the dogs’ heartbeats, so they ruled out stress.
The research showed that dogs do yawn more in response to their owners’ yawns and they yawned less when the yawns were fake or they were from a person they did not know.
Interesting, huh??
Until next time,
Hugs and Pug Kisses,
Candy
