Dogs can spot liars and will disregard them
If you’ve ever owned a dog, you’ll know just how intelligent these beautiful animals can be. Verbal commands, body language and even signs, various breeds of dog can interpret them all and interpret them well. Now a new study has found that dogs can actually tell when a human is trying to fool them, and call them out on it by completely disregarding the person in question.
The study, which was carried out at Kyoto University in Japan and published in October 2014, focused on the behavior of 34 pet dogs as they interacted with a researcher and a pair of containers, one of which contained a dog treat.
The study was focused around three rounds.
- Round 1: The researchers correctly pointed to where food was hidden in a container.
- Round 2: The researchers pointed out the empty container as having the treat inside.
- Round 3: The researchers pointed again to the container with food.
By the third round, the dogs had decided against responding to the researchers cues, suggesting that the dogs used their past experience to assess the reliability of the source showing them where a potential treat may be.
Lead researcher Dr Takaoka summarised the findings with the following statement:
“Dogs have more sophisticated social intelligence than we thought. This social intelligence evolved selectively in their long life history with humans.”
It is now thought the results of the study will be tested against other similar species as well as being integrated into behavioural training for domesticated dogs.
Related links:
Why is my dog such a picky pooper?
These cats and dogs prove that love conquers all
Homemade peanut butter dog treat