For centuries, people have been turning to their beloved pooches for
affection and companionship. And for good reason — dogs are incredibly
perceptive and intelligent creatures. They may not understand the
nuances of everyday life, of course, but dogs have an incredible ability
to understand how their pet parents are feeling emotionally, and even
physically. Indeed, they don’t call ‘em man’s best friend for nothing!
Continue reading to check out some of the amazing things that your canine friend can tell about you.
1. They Know if You’re Scared.
Heard something go bump in the night? Dogs can pick up on your fear,
and will usually mimic your behavior. If you’d like to alleviate your
dog’s fear, you need to alleviate your own first! One exception, though,
would be the several breeds that have been, well, bred, to be guard
dogs.
2. They Notice Inequality.
Dogs can tell if you’re playing favorites. Let’s say you have two
dogs who both earned a treat for good behavior. If you give a treat to
only one, the other will likely pick up on that, and believe she’s done
something wrong. They can even stop cooperating all together. Perhaps
there’s something us humans can learn from this!
3. They Know Whether or Not You’re Paying Attention.
Any pet parent with a sneaky pooch knows this one is totally true!
The science backs it up, too: studies have shown that dogs are perfectly
aware whether or not there are any people around, and will behave
accordingly. Even the most well-behaved dog on the block can’t risk
temptations when no humans are around to scold them.
4. They Can Tell if You’re Sick.
Dogs have long been prized — and put to work — for their keen sense of smell. Their noses are thousands of times stronger than the average human! Just as dogs are trained to sniff for drugs or explosives, dogs have also been successfully trained to pick up on the extremely subtle scents our bodies give off when we have cancer. Other dogs have been trained to alert their pet parents when they’re about to have a seizure minutes or even hours before an attack will happen– though it’s not entirely clear if this skill is related to dog’s sense of smell.
5. They Know If You’re Sad.
Does your dog somehow know just what to do when you’re not feeling so
happy? You’re not imagining it — studies have shown that dogs can pick
up on your sadness and are more likely to approach you. One such study
placed two people, one crying and one quiet, in a room. Almost all of
the dogs approached the crying person, and most of those did so with
submissive body language — even if the crying person was a stranger to
them. Researchers, though, aren’t entirely clear on whether this means
that dogs fully understand empathy.
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