Animal studies Dogs can sense human emotions

The best friend of man may understand us better than expected
Almost every dog ​​owner is convinced that his dog can understand him. The dog knows how his "master" feels and reacts accordingly to the situation. But the "best friend of man" really understands our emotions or is something of a dog owner?
Many people are sure that their dog can understand them emotionally. Does a dog really understand the feelings of its owner? A recent study from the Universities of Lincoln and Sao Paulo found that dogs can actually detect negative and positive emotions and are therefore able to see how their owners feel. The results of the study, the researchers now published in the journal "Royal Society journal Biology Letters".

Dogs can feel emotions of humans. Picture: glisic_albina - fotolia

Dogs have cognitive abilities that normally only occur in primates and humans
Dogs really seem to be the best friend of man. Researchers have now discovered that dogs can use a combination of different senses to recognize how a person feels. "That's why dogs are the only beings outside of humans where such an ability has been observed," the scientists said. For the investigation, seventeen dogs were shown pairs of images of people who were either happy or angry.

Other pictures showed dogs that looked playful or aggressive. To do this, the researchers played sounds, such as aggressive or playful barking, happy or angry voices of people. The experts found that the dogs were more likely to look at the image that matched the tone of the voice. These cognitive abilities have so far only existed in primates. "The ability to recognize emotions in other species has so far only been observed and documented in humans," explained Dr Kun Guo of the University of Lincoln's School of Psychology..

Even better, people recognized the sounds of other dogs. Researchers in Vienna had noticed last year that dogs looked at people's faces and then knew whether a person was happy or angry. But the current investigation has revealed that dogs could not only recognize on the face how a person feels, the scientists said. It seems that dogs can really emotionally perceive how people go, the doctors added. Our study shows that dogs have the opportunity to integrate two different sources of sensory information into a coherent perception of emotions in humans and dogs, Dr. Kun Guo.

Dogs are smarter than cats and even capable of empathy
"There is a long-standing debate as to whether dogs can detect human emotions," said one author, Professor Daniel Mills in the study. Many dog ​​owners anecdotally report that their pets are very sensitive to the moods of human family members. However, there is an important difference between associative behavior, such as learning to adequately respond to an angry voice and recognizing a series of very different yet cohesive signs, and then assessing emotional arousal in another being.

"The current results are the first to show that dogs really recognize emotions in humans and other dogs," said Professor Mills of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln. Dogs are smarter than cats because their friendly nature has helped them develop larger brains, the researchers added. The dogs in the studies received no training or training period with the pictures or sounds. This suggests that dogs have the ability to combine emotional signals. "As a very social species, such recognition of human emotions is extremely beneficial to dogs," the experts said in their study. Dogs are able to imitate mutual expressions, meaning that they have the capacity for empathy. (As)