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Dogs could be best advised to dismiss the whole “man’s best friend” moniker as little more than a disingenuous platitude, going by research carried out at Arizona State University (ASU).
In what sounds like the opposite of a good pal, humans “typically do not have a good understanding of the emotional state of their dog,” according to a team of ASU psychologists.
The researchers carried out experiments in which participants were asked to watch videos of dogs and take a stab at what they thought the hounds might be feeling.
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Dog owners often come up with misplaced notions about the pet’s emotions, the researchers found, concluding that a “bias toward projecting human emotions” onto pets means that people typically do not pick up on what might going on in a dog’s head.
The study, published in the journal Anthrozoös, concluded that human perceptions of dogs “are influenced by extraneous factors such as the context in which the dog is seen or the presence of other stimuli.”
“Our dogs are trying to communicate with us, but we humans seem determined to look at everything except the poor pooch himself,” said Clive Wynne of ASU.
“These errors can have significant welfare implications, potentially causing us to overlook or misinterpret a dog’s actual needs,” the ASU team warned.
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