TEMPE, Ariz. – Do you know what your dog is thinking?
Most pet owners would probably say yes, but a new study from Arizona State University says think again. You may not know your dog that well after all.
What we know:
This is a four-year study, by a doctoral student at ASU.
The conclusion: we may think we understand our dogs – traditional signals like being happy when they wag their tail might tip us off. It turns out we may be missing the point.
Most dog owners would tell you they know what their dog is thinking.
“I think so, yeah, I think it’s in her eyes, the way she looks at me right in the eyes.”
“I just think we spend so much time together. We know what he thinks and what he likes and what he doesn’t like. There isn’t much he doesn’t like.”
Because dogs can’t talk, we’re basically interpreting their behavior.
According to ASU student Holly Molinaro, we often miss the point.
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What they’re saying:
“So our study shows that we don’t actually look at the dog. We look at everything around the dog, the [overall] situation [matters],” said Molinaro.
For her study, Holly shot videos of people interacting with their dogs, doing positive things like showing a leash and negative things like turning on the vacuum cleaner.
Then she asks the owner what the dog was thinking.
“We’re just projecting how we would feel in that situation onto the dog and we’re just looking at the queue from the situation, not actually looking at the dog,” she said.
Then Holly edited out the background, removing the leash and vacuum or sometimes reversing the positive and negative situation.
That’s when things get strange.
“Then we showed them the same videos with the different background and then, all of a sudden, their perception changes even though the dog was doing the exact same thing,” Holly said.
Why you should care:
If she is right, humans are influenced by context as much as behavior.
A built-in blind spot in understanding the pet you think you know so well.
What’s next:
Holly will present her studies in the next few weeks and hopes to achieve her doctoral degree with the findings. And if you’re wondering, Holly has a cat.
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