Dogs Can Read Your Thoughts

Another reason dogs rule: They know what you're thinking

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.

I think he just rediscovered what every dog owner already knew.  Every scientist has to reinvent a wheel or two along the way.  But he did it with numbers...

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.

I don't buy Jones analysis.  Wolves interact pretty much like dogs within their own society, but they don't do very well with people.  Clearly, somewhere along their evolutionary path with humans,  dogs picked up traits that allows them to interpret what people are thinking, because it was an incredible survival tool for them to do so, something other "wolves" never required.

Is that dog thinking what I'm thinking?

The Classical Liberal picked this up in his Rule 5 list for the week; Thanks!