Dogs Can Sense If Someone Is Untrustworthy, According To Science

A cat or a dog? To choose between adopting a cat or dog can be hard. Dogs need more care while cats are more autonomous, nevertheless, if you want to share cuddles with your pet friend - and not only when it suits your cat - then a dog is probably the right choice for you.

What is more, puppies are much more sensitive than kittens when it comes to human emotions. There's a lot of evidence that dogs can sense how we feel. According to a study, pooches can tell the difference between happy and angry faces, and even expressions that depict jealousy. Another recent research has investigated the matter more deeply and has shown that dogs can understand how reliable a human is. It turns out, dogs, as real cops, can prove if a person is untrustworthy.

We've known for ages that dogs can understand what it means when a person points at something. If a dog’s owner, for example, points to the place where somebody’s left a ball, stick or food, the dog is going to go there and explore the place. In the study that was led by a scientist named Akiko Takaoka of Kyoto University, Japan, thirty-four dogs were presented with three rounds of pointing. The purpose was to find out whether a dog would trust someone who lied to it. The scientists aimed to learn whether the dog would find out whether or not the participant was reliable.

In the experiment, dog owners pointed to a box of food. The animal then ran to it. In the first round, the participants pointed correctly to where food was hidden in a box. However, in the next round, they pointed to an empty container. It turned out, dogs would go to something their owner would point at. That means the dogs understood the people’s gestures. However, if the signals were contradictory, the dogs would feel worried and stressed. Therefore, when in the third round, the same person again pointed to the container with food, the dogs would not follow the showing hand. They didn' trust the liars. All the dogs which took part in the experiment reacted the same way, as the Animal Cognition Journal concluded.

Once again, the puppies followed the new experimenter with interest. The reason for their behavior was simple. Dogs feel attracted to anything new. And that's why the new participant earned the dogs’ trust again. Takaoka stated that she was shocked the dogs became aware of a person's honesty so fast.

During another experiment, dog owners asked other people for help. The people then were trying to give the dogs a treat. The pets would not eat a treat from the ones that had bad behavior toward their owners. However, they allowed those that helped their owners and even those who did nothing about the begging to feed them.

That's what a study led by Neuroscience, and Biobehavioural Reviews declared. In a different experiment, dog owners asked two groups of strangers for help. The dogs demonstrated a good understanding of social rules. However, they avoided interaction with the people who were rude to their owners.

She has a collie that's considered to be one of the most intelligent breeds. When they went out for a walk, the collie would sit at the point of a junction and wait to see which direction to go. On the top of this, if a stranger has demonstrated to be rude or untrustworthy in some way (and not only when it comes to food) the collie wouldn't trust them.

It's scientifically confirmed that dogs are more intelligent than it was once thought, but their intelligence differs from humans’ intelligence. When a dog encounters a situation, it'll respond to what’s there. Dogs can't think deeply about what is going on, as a human can. If you mislead your dog, it won't trust or serve you. And if your dog doesn’t like your buddies, there may be something wrong with the people you consider to be your friends.

Reference: I Heart Intelligence