Dogs are not only known as the most loyal pets. Recent research showed the animal with a sharp sense of smell is also capable of responding to the emotional side of his master, such as master's sad.
In a study published last May in the journal Animal Cognition, researchers from the University of London, England, found that dogs tend to approach people cry than someone who is singing or speaking.
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| Do dogs understand when their owners are sad? (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/) |
Psychologist and researcher, Deborah Custance, said the hum of human activity that is relatively new to dogs, so often sparked their curiosity. "But the fact that dogs are able to distinguish human cries and singing show that their response to the cry is not purely driven by curiosity," says Custance.
By contrast, induced a sense of emotional crying is higher for dogs and trigger them to respond more strongly than when they saw human humming or talking.
In her research, Custance and her colleagues, Jennifer Mayer, tested 18 dogs and their owners to disclose whether the dog will respond to the cries of empathic behavior.
In the experiment, Mayer chatted with the owners of dog regardless of their dogs. They pretended to cry and sing. From 18 dogs in this study, 15 of them approached owners or Mayer during both pretending to cry. Only six dogs approached them while humming.
These findings suggest that the dog approached by emotional content, rather than curiosity. In addition, the dog always approached those who weep and do not approach the person calm.
From 15 dogs, 13 of them went to people who were crying with submissive body language, such as tucked tail and head bowed. "The dog approached anyone who cry regardless of the identity of the person, the owner or not," said Mayer. *** [LIVESCIENCE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 3907]
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