So far we’ve covered that our canine buddies are able to process human speech, experience jealousy, and even recognize some of our emotional expressions. Now, it appears our perceptive pooches can quite quickly discriminate between a fib and a fact.
The truth is out there
In a recent experiment conducted by the scientists over at Kyoto University, Japan, the researchers gathered 34 dogs and their owners in order to determine how good our canine buddies really are at figuring out the truth.
During the experiment, the dogs were presented with two opaque containers, one was empty and the other contained food, while both containers were scented the same way so that the dogs couldn’t cheat by simply using their extraordinary sense of smell.
In round two, however, the human participants misled their dogs by pointing at the empty containers.
In the third stage of the experiment they repeated what they did in round one, but now, rather than blindly following their owner’s suggestions, the dogs no longer responded to the cues given by their masters.
Just to be on the safe side, the scientists repeated the experiment several times and found same results.
Social Intelligence
These findings reveal that dogs are able to judge a person’s reliability based on experience. According to Akiko Takaoka, the lead author of this research: “Dogs have more sophisticated social intelligence than we thought. This social intelligence evolved selectively in their long life history with humans.”
So, next time you play fetch with your pooch, think twice before tricking Fido into running for the ghost stick.