According to a new study published by the Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews journal, dogs are capable of recognizing if a person is nice... Or if they've been mean to another human! And the best part is, how they behave toward someone (including their owner) may depend on that person's attitude or how they've been acting toward other people!
To work this out, researchers asked dog owners to act out different scenarios while their pooches watched. The volunteers pretended to struggle at opening a container before asking two researchers to help them. In the first scenario, one researcher stood there passively, while their colleague offered to help. In the second, one researcher remained passive, while the other actively refused to help out.
At the conclusion of both scenarios, both researchers offered the dog in question a treat. And, here's where it gets interesting: In the first scenario, dogs were just as likely to take a treat from both researchers.
But in the second scenario, where one of the researchers had been deliberately mean to their owners, the dogs were significantly more likely to ignore the one who had been unpleasant, shunning their treat.
The scientists concluded that dogs are able to tell if someone is being a nasty piece of work and judge them accordingly.
So, next time your dog seems to dislike someone, take note.
From: Prima UK