People and pups have a bond that inspires idioms, artwork and oodles of shareable internet videos. With an affinity that strong, you'd think humans were pretty good at understanding dogs. Well, apparently not.
At least, that’s according to a recent study by researchers at Arizona State University (ASU), which found that people may be – ahem – barking up the wrong tree when it comes to reading dogs' emotions. In fact, the study says we may actually be misreading them far more often than we think we do.
“People think they can easily tell what their dog is feeling,” study author and animal welfare scientist Holly Molinaro told BBC Science Focus. “Our research shows this is not the case. In fact, people aren't even looking at the dog when they're trying to perceive their emotions.”
Molinaro and the study’s other author, ASU psychology professor Clive Wynne, found that people trying to judge a dog’s emotions pay too much attention to external signals – such as someone offering the dog a treat or using a vacuum cleaner – and don't focus enough on the dog’s behaviour, such as barking or tail wagging.
“Our dogs are trying to communicate with us, but we humans seem determined to look at everything except the poor pooch himself,” said Wynne in a statement.
Molinaro and Wynne filmed a dog reacting to several positive and negative situations, like being offered a lead or gently being told off. With this footage, they then conducted two experiments.
First, the scientists played the videos of the dog to 383 members of the public, both with and without the visual context for his behaviour.
Then they edited the videos so the dog’s behaviour and situations were mismatched. In these videos, it seemed as if the dog, when filmed in a positive context, was actually reacting to a negative situation – and vice versa. These edited videos were shown to 485 members of the public.
In both experiments, participants rated how happy or sad, and excited or calm, they thought the dog was.
“In our study, when people saw a video of a dog apparently reacting to a vacuum cleaner, everyone said the dog was feeling bad and agitated,” said Molinaro in a statement. “But when they saw a video of the dog doing the exact same thing, but this time appearing to react to seeing his leash, everyone reported that the dog was feeling happy and calm.
“People were not judging a dog’s emotions based on the dog’s behaviour, but on the situation the dog was in.”
Yet when people were asked what cues they were using to perceive the dogs emotions, “the context of the situation” was the least chosen answer, despite the study's finding that context had the strongest influence on their results.
The scientists also found that people projected their own emotions onto the dog. People who were happier before the survey were more likely to think the dog was happy, further muddling their ability to properly assess the dog’s behaviour.
The study participants were strangers, so the researchers acknowledge that dog owners might know their own dogs better. Yet, Molinaro's personal experience suggests otherwise – when she showed the edited videos to her dad, his response surprised her.
“Since he actually acted in the videos, I assumed he would be better at judging the dog’s emotions," she told BBC Science Focus. "But even he got them wrong – so I think even with someone's own dog, these biases are still present.”
So how can you improve your understanding of your pooch? Molinaro suggests being humbler when it comes to reading your dog's emotions, given you're probably not as good at it as you think. Plus – since, when we read other people's emotions, we take into account culture, mood, situation and previous behaviour – getting to know your dog's individual behaviour and personality could help.
“Every dog is unique and will have their own slightly different emotional cues,” Molinaro told BBC Science Focus. “This study can teach us to really begin to pay attention to our own dog’s cues, rather than just relying on blanket statements about dog emotions.
“My hope is that owners will be able to really pay attention to their own dogs and notice slight behavioural nuances they never noticed before.”
About our expert:
Holly Molinaro is a PhD student, a graduate teaching associate and an animal welfare scientist in the department of psychology at Arizona State University, in the US.
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