Dogs may be more similar to humans than we had thought

Dogs behave more like men than like dogs. Does it sound like nonsense to you? It did to me, at first, as well, but then I started to search for research and scientific studies on this topic – and it is true. In course of the evolution process and thousands of years of cohabitation with human, the dogs took over many skills and characteristics.

A relatively extensive summary of all possible research on dog behaviour that resembles the humans has been put together, for example, by the National Geographic magazine. Ethologists say, that dogs can read emotions, are able to express jealousy and allegedly, they might even watch TV with the same interest as us, humans. They say it depends – as in the case of humans – on the programme. It is true, that not a long time ago, my dog managed to watch horse racing on TV for a relatively long time. But they didn’t interest me so I switched to the news and he wasn’t interested in that anymore.

The fact that dogs are very similar to humans, experts for animal behaviour explain by saying it is convenient for them. Since they have been living with us for a long time, they had to learn how to get along and cooperate with us. And this has logically led to them overtaking some of our skills and they’ve started to mirror our ways of behaviour.

An article on one recent research on this topic has lately come out in the Animal Behaviour magazine. Simply put, it dealt with the question whether dogs feel greater affection towards people that are kind to their owners or whether the relation of another human being to their master doesn’t play any role for the dog even in case, that the person offers them a treat.

The experiment with 54 dogs took place in such a manner so that their master pretended that they want to pull out a heavy object from a container. In one case, a passerby helped them, in another, they did not. In both cases, there was a third person present at the experiment, who only observed the whole situation and didn’t intrude at all. Consequently, the scientists inquired, whether the dog would rather take a treat from the neutral observer or from someone who had helped their master to get out the object from the container.

The result? Dogs didn’t prefer either of them and took a treat with the same willingness  from both. Nevertheless, in case they were to choose between the neutral observer and someone who hadn’t helped their master with the given task, they unequivocally chose the neutral observer. As if they could sense that someone had denied to help their master? Difficult to say, the scientists argue. Apparently, the experiment has to be repeated in more detail and this dog behaviour has to be researched further. However, it is extraordinary, that a similar experiment with small children had the same results.

Then scientists do believe that dogs are really similar in many aspects to humans (and not to the children only). But I’m afraid that my shelter dog who is a tremendous feeder would still take a treat even from my nemesis :-). However, maybe in the case of my dog it is the proverbial exception that proves the rule.