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Knode family
Crystal Knode says her Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Rachel, shown with her 15-year-old daughter, Alex, pays close attention to the family and "anticipates what is going to happen."
Scientists have finally proven what every dog owner knows – our canine friends read our facial expressions like dedicated detectives.
Dogs don’t just depend on verbal commands to figure out what we want, a new study shows. Instead, they look into our eyes and try to guess what we’re up to, according to the study published in Current Biology.
Hungarian researchers showed that dogs will even follow our gaze if we make eye contact with them first.
This study “reveals that dogs are receptive to human communication in a manner that was previously only attributed only to 6-month-old human infants,” said study co-author Jozsef Topal a researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Topal and his colleagues studied 29 canines. The dogs were shown a movie of a woman who sometimes would stare straight at the dog and call out to him and then turn her head to stare at an object next to her. The other times the woman would just turn her head and stare at the object.
For the most part, dogs who were addressed both through eye contact and with a verbal greeting tended to follow the gaze of the woman in the movie. When no eye contact was made, the dogs didn’t follow the gaze of the woman.
There have been similar experiments in babies, Topal said. And the dogs are behaving just as 6-month-olds do.
The new findings come as no surprise to Crystal Knode, a 51-year-old legal secretary from San Jose, Calif. Her 9-year-old Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Rachel, is always observing family members’ body language and facial expressions.
“She anticipates what is going to happen,” Knode said. “She watches and takes cues to figure out what I’m going to do and what I’m not going to do. Dogs are very attuned to body language and hand motions.”
Topal is convinced that the dogs’ behavior is something that has been bred into the species over its long partnership with humanity.
“Dogs have evolved to sharing their lives with humans,” Topal said. “And they gained new skills that support their social interaction with humans.”
Deleta Jones isn’t buying that analysis. She thinks this is just the way dogs interact – whether it’s with a human or another dog.
“When they learn verbal commands, they are learning a foreign language,” said the 48-year-old dog trainer from Hollister, Calif. “Dogs normally speak through body language and facial expression. It’s more natural to them.
“If you’ve ever watched dogs at a dog park, you’ve seen it. Within 30 seconds of the time they enter the park a huge amount of information has passed back and forth between the new dog and the ones already in the park. They’re exchanging looks, observing eyes and body posture. In seconds they know who is dominant and who is submissive.”
That skill just transfers to relationships with their owners, Jones said. “If people are upset and crying the dog sees the upset facial expression and also smells the adrenaline,” she added. “Dogs read all of that.”
Video: 'Talking' husky: From YouTube to big screen
So ultimately, babies, until they develop language, are using a communication system that all social animals do. Later on, they’ll lean more heavily on the spoken word, while dogs, cats and horses will continue to rely on body language.
People sometimes forget that body language is the more natural mode of communication for their pets, Knode said. If you really want to have a conversation with your pet, tune in to their language, she says.
“You have to try to communicate on their level, what they understand,” Knode said. “They have their own language and you just have to try to communicate and think as they would think.”
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Our cat knows when my husband's blood sugar drops. She has woken him before he went into insulin coma.
Two of our dogs know when I have a debilitating headache. One curls up with me, the other "guards" me, she lays at my feet which is not her normal thing.
Scientists have learned what animal lovers have always known. They aren't dumb just because they don't have spoken language skills. We are smart when we watch and "hear" them they way they do with us.
I'm REAL impressed by this and so many other articles about how marvelous dogs are, but the facts still remain that: #1 Dogs are the YES MEN of the animal World, and #2 They eat their own @!$%#!
Ralph, as to your #2 I've never seen mine do that. Now, I've caught them nibbling at another dogs droppings but I think that's because they smell some poorly digested food and want a treat, lol. Anyway, monkeys will eat their own feces. And, lol, if at a zoo and being observed they'll throw it at the spectators. Lol, "Ha! You dumb monkey, you missed me!"
My big Newfoundland was very protective, would go into attack mode when I was threatened in any way, verbally or physically, would look at me every day with complete devotion, seeming to say "I will be so glad to die for you". I had a Scotch Terrier who without fail, would meet my little girl at the bus stop ( half mile away) and walk her home. My life was saved by a Great White Pyrenees during a blizzard in the Colo. Rockies. The Search and Rescue was going to give up but the dog didn't. My friend had a Lab who would open/close the doors when told, turn the wall lite switches off/on. Also, my cats and horses provide smarts and unconditional Love. I could write a book.
When I encounter amean or ugly dog ; I stay away from it's ownern !! K G K
I'm not a dog person but I was sitting and petting a terminally ill dog at a friend's house. As soon as the thought, "it's time to go" popped in my head, the dog's paws covered my legs. It was weird.
GBirdie
"I wonder if all animals are more intelligent than scientists have told us. My little schnauzer not only understands me, but tries to talk back!"
GBirdie, I'm quite certain that many animals, dogs included, are not only more intelligent than scientists have told us, but also more intelligent than the scientists who told us! (Ok, I'm joking, but only a little). Dogs figure out the big picture about people pretty quickly: what we people are doing, what we mean, whether we have cancer, how they can out fox us or manipulate us, whether we are mean or kind; they don't forget who's mean or kind, they grieve, they get ptsd because they understand horror and loss, they love, they sacrifice for us. However, it takes scientists years and years and years to figure out the big picture about dogs and to have a clue that a dog can do any of these things.
For years scientists told us that animals had no feelings, only instincts, and that they couldn't reason. After years of not having a clue, scientists have FINALLY figured out that they were wrong about dogs, and other animals, too. That just goes to show you that people, who think they are the smartest animals on the planet, are actually sometimes the dumbest and slowest when it comes to getting a clue as to what's going on with other animals. Perhaps man's arrogance gets in the way or his reasoning and observing abilities.
The only people who really knew what dogs were capable of were the people who lived with them, and we didn't need a zillion experiments to figure out what was already glaringly obvious to us. So maybe living with animals has another positive effect in addition to all the others (like making us happy, making us live longer, lowering our blood pressure, finding our cancer, or leading us when we are blind, etc. etc. ). Maybe living around dogs makes us smarter people, too! So, maybe DOGS can teach US a thing or two!!!
One more thing. I knew a blind guy with a very large black lab as a seeing eye dog. The dog had never been trained to protect. Actually, the dogs was a bit of a character, and he had to be corrected a lot because he always wanted to play or interact with others when he was working. One day the blind guy was walking downtown and a stranger put his hand on the blind guy's back pocket in order to steal his wallet. The blind guy had no more than had time to say "hey" when the big black lab had the stranger's hand between his teeth in his large mouth. The man ended up getting stitches. They asked the blind guy if he wanted to press charges (strange, in this day and time they'd probably press charges on the blind guy for allowing his dog to protect him by biting), but he said that the guy already got what he deserved. The lab was never taught to protect the guy, but the lab knew what was going on and reasoned out the appropriate action that was needed. Animals never cease to amaze me at what they figure out and do.
Well, we shouldn't over-emphasize. Ok, the dog grabbed the thief's hand. Loyal dogs, territorial dogs do that when what is theirs might be taken away. That's probably why a dog will appear to be protecting it's master out of love, but, more likely the dog considers Master as his, and not to be fooled with. K-9 are trained to protect their masters, to attack and kill. That's training, not love. Not that it matters much, the result is the same. I like to think that my little dogs would protect me, but it may be that they will because I'm the familiar food source, and dogs will return home after being lost because home is where the food is, lol.
Major dog person here. I've written a blog in the voice of my 2 poodles, who believe, like Socrates, that the unexamined life is not worth living. Come visit:
http://whatdogsreallythink.blogspot.com/
Me and my dog communicate better than me and my ex ever did, so the fact that my dog knows what I'm thinking comes as no shock to me.
I had to put my golden retriever to sleep due to a large nasal tumor. He couldn't eat, swallow his own drool, or sleep comfortably. I think he knew it was the end before I did. Right before the vet injected him, he placed his head on my knee and looked me straight in the eyes. He seem to be saying "it's all right mommy". He saw though the bravery I was trying to show. I mourned for weeks afterwards....hearing my co-workers say thngs like "it was just a dog"!
Brenda, your dog was part of you, and you loved him. As for the "It's just a dog," well, to hell with those fools, your dog was worth three of them. I'm retired and getting by on Social Security. When I bring dog food home some old guy usually starts; "I don't see how you can spend good money on food for three dogs!" Lol, "You're not doing it, I am, so you don't need to see how. Get lost fool."
1
I know how you feel, my dog got sick last year and unexpectedly died the night I retired and we could have done more together. I remember thinking how cruel and unfair life can be. I almost thought I would not get over it. No one that knew Rai said he was only a dog. Even neighbors I didn't really know asked where he was and my terminally ill next door neighbor cried when I had to tell her because she really loved him too.
Well here's a little story for those that think cats are as bonding to humans as goldfish..
I had a cat and we would sit out in the backyard together. I saw some racoons come in the yard and after a little time I was throwing bread to one and he eat it, and in few days he walk over to me and got closer so ai could almost hand feed him , well one time as he was very closr and taking the bread from my fingers my cat looked at me and made a warning sound and it was very clear the cat was saying hey stupid watch it this thing could bite you and maybe has rabies..just a thought but it was a clear message..I'd never experienced that from a cat before..
My Akita was so cool, he would actually read my mind! He could be laying on his bed in the garage and if I started thinking of taking him for a walk, I would turn around and see him looking in the door all happy and wagging his tail. Seriously, it was either that or he was controlling me with his mind and making me want to take him for that walk! When he was in the house and I was going to take him, I figured he could tell by me doing things, putting on my coat, etc. But I would put on my coat to do something outside and that alone did not make him act happy like he was going on a walk. He just somehow knew when my mind was made up to take him.
Had Labrador Retrievers - current one is the most intelligent and observent yet !
He knows exactly what is going on - he knows words and phrases, so sometimes I have to talk in code and partial words and phrases to other members of my household if it involves him - or else he will give me no peace -
"ou" means outside - "d" means dog - take the "d" to the "p" means take the dog to the park, etc -
he also "talks" to me to let his needs and wants known very clearly by using a wide variety of barks, whines and growls of different intensity and also by just staring at me !! Somehow that is enough - like ESP or something - I know what he wants -
By keeping an open mind, I have practiced developing these forms of communication with all my dogs and it works !