There are an abundance of reasons as to why dogs are heralded as man’s best friend. They’re loyal, brave, loving companions, much deserving of their status amongst our most cherished pets.
I mean, have you ever noticed that your dog – more often than not – wants to be around you when you’re sad? Perhaps you’ve seen videos of them comforting complete strangers who appear to be in distress.
Well, a new study apparently suggests that dogs have an acute awareness for when someone is upset and needs help.
According to CNN, new research published in the journal Learning & Behaviour on Tuesday illustrates how dogs moved faster, on average, to reach their owners when they perceived them to be in distress.
The pups were quicker to open a door to get to their owners when they thought they were crying, than when he or she hummed the tune to “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”.
Whilst the study took place with a relatively small pool of dogs (involving only 34) it could pave the way for a better understanding as to what motivates and influences dogs to help their human companions.
Emily Sandford, a graduate student in psychological and brain sciences at John Hopkins University, was a co-author in the study. She said: “It’s really cool for us to know that dogs are so sensitive to human emotional states.
“It is interesting to think that all these anecdotes of dogs rescuing humans, they could be grounded in truth, and this study is a step toward understanding how those kinds of mechanisms work.”
The study
In the study, owners and their dogs – of differing breeds and sizes – were separated into two groups. The dog was placed in a room adjacent to one where its owner was sitting behind a closed door. The dog could see and hear its owner through Plexiglas in the door.
In one of the groups, the owners were instructed to say ‘help’ every 15 seconds whilst sounding distressed and make crying sounds. The other group’s owners were told to say the same word in a normal tone while humming.
Researchers found that while a similar number of dogs in both groups opened the door – which was attached by magnets and so easy for the canines to open – there was a marked difference in how quickly they responded. For the dogs who responded to their owners sounding distressed, it took an average of 23.43 seconds to open the door, whilst the dogs whose owners were humming took on average 95.89 seconds to answer the call.
“While we don’t know for sure whether other factors motivated the opening, what we can say is that dogs in the crying condition opened much more quickly than dogs in the humming condition, which suggests that they are taking an action when their owner is in distress,” said Julia Meyers-Manor, who was senior author of the study.
Well, that study proves something most of us already knew: Dogs are completely awesome!
If you have a dog, have previously owned one, or simply love our four-legged friends, share this article to show once again how great they are.
