If you have a dog, you might think you have a strong connection with them.
But according to a new study you probably read the emotions of your pet completely wrong.
Although people and dogs have a unique bond, scientists from Arizona State University say that we are terrible in understanding canine emotions.
Participants were shown videos of a dog that responded to positive situations, such as seeing their leading role, or negative situations as presented with the dreaded vacuum cleaner.
Instead of really trying to understand what the dog feels, the researchers discovered that people tend to “project human emotions on their pets.”
This means that we are much more likely to assume that a dog is happy or sad on the basis of what is happening around them, rather than how they behave.
Study co-author Professor Clive Wynne says: “Our dogs try to communicate with us, but we humans seem determined to look at everything except the poor Pooch himself.”
So, do you need what is to the next Dr. To be dolute?
Can you tell what this dog is thinking? A study shows that people are bad at understanding dog emotions and often making assumptions based on context instead of the dog's behavior
People and dogs have evolved together for thousands of years and have developed a connection that was not found anywhere else in the animal kingdom.
Studies have shown that dogs are able to detect human emotions with a high level of accuracy and even smell stress or fear in our sweat and breath.
However, the researchers point out that people often assume that their dogs have similar emotional reactions as themselves.
Study Co-author Holly Molinaro, a PhD student at Arizona State University, says: “I have always found that dogs and people must have the same emotions to be very biased and without any real scientific evidence to support it, so I wanted to see if there are factors that can actually influence our perception of dog emotions.”
In the first test, 383 participants were shown a video of a dog in a 'happy' or 'less happy' situation.
In the happy situation, the dog was offered something that he liked, such as his lead or a treat, and in the less happy scenario it either got a soft chastisement or got something that it didn't like, like the Hoover.
In this test, the participants successfully identified that the dog was happy when he was shown her lead and that it was unhappy when the Hoover was shown.
In a second test, however, 485 participants were shown a clip that was edited to keep the images of the dog's reaction the same, but to change the scenario.
When a clip of a dog is shown to be shown the vacuum cleaner, the participants in the test assess the dog as more stressed. However, the researchers discovered that this was based on an assumption instead of looking at the dog itself (file photo)
This revealed that people made their assumptions about the emotions of the dogs, based on everything, but how the dog actually behaved.
Mrs. Molinaro says: 'People don't look at what the dog does, instead they look at the situation around the dog and base their emotional perception on it.
'You see a dog getting a treat, you assume he should feel good. You see a dog to scream, you assume he feels bad. '
In the video above the images have been edited so that the dog's reaction is the same in both clips.
But because the dog appears in one clip next to a hoover and with a lead in the other, most people assume that the dog is experiencing a different emotional reaction.
“In our studies, when people saw a video of a dog who apparently responded to a vacuum cleaner, everyone said the dog felt bad and agitated,” says Mrs. Molinaro.
“But when they saw a video of the dog that did exactly the same thing, but this time seemed to respond to seeing his belt, everyone reported that the dog felt happy and calm.”
This means that people are generally not so good at understanding their pets as we may want to accept.
In the test, the same clip of a dog was edited so that it seemed to respond to a vacuum cleaner or the lead. Participants said the dog was happy when they are shown with its lead and unhappy when they are shown with the vacuum cleaner, despite the two clips that showed the same behavior
Previous studies have shown that dogs blink as a sign that they are trying to communicate with their owners. Licking was meanwhile linked to an increased level of stress
However, that does not necessarily mean that it is impossible for us to try to understand our dogs.
Previous studies have suggested that people are able to distinguish the emotions of the dog from small changes in their faces.
One study, conducted by the University of Florida and Harvard University, showed that people 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 does, instead of just making assumptions based on context alone.
Mrs. Molinaro concludes: 'We must be more humble in our understanding of our dogs. As soon as we can start from a basis to understand our prejudices, we can start looking in a new light.
'The personality of every dog, and therefore her emotional expressions, are unique to that dog. Pay really attention to the signals and behaviors of your own dog. '
Is dog information related to human intelligence?
The possibilities of dogs to learn are varied, just like the possibilities of people, according to webmd.
Dogs that were bred to hunt, pick up or herds are faster students because they are inherently faster on their feet.
Likewise, dogs are bred to guard cattle or scents of laps usually slower.
A new study has shown that mental deterioration can be removed from older dogs if the dogs complete henstheasers on a touchscreen (file photo)
The key in training your dog, says Webmd, comes down to knowing what your dog has been bred to achieve.
According to trainers, however, all dogs can be trained to follow simple commands.
WebMD reports that the following are the most natural intelligent dog breeds:
- Border Collie
- Poodle
- German Shepherd
- Golden Retriever
- Doberman Pinscher
- Shetland Sheepdog
- Labrador Retriever
- Papillon
- Rottweiler
- Australian cattle dog
