GabyThink you understand your dog? Scientists at Arizona State University (ASU) believe you might be mistaken. A new study on how humans perceive dog behavior has revealed that we significantly misinterpret their emotions, despite the strong bond that has developed between humans and dogs over centuries of companionship. “People think they can easily interpret a dog’s feelings. Our research showed that this is not the case. In fact, people often don’t even look at the dog when assessing its emotions,” noted Holly Molinaro, an animal welfare expert, in an interview with BBC Science Focus.
Molinaro and psychology professor Clive Wynne, co-author of the study, found that individuals trying to understand a dog’s emotions tend to focus too much on external signals, like the sound of a leash, while neglecting the animal’s behavior, such as barking or wagging its tail. “Our dogs are trying to communicate with us, but we’re inclined to look at everything around them except the poor pup,” said Professor Wynne.
So, how was the study conducted? Researchers recorded dogs’ reactions to various positive and negative situations, such as being offered a leash before a walk or being gently scolded for a minor misdeed. Using these videos, the scientists conducted two experiments. First, they showed footage of a dog to 383 people, both with and without visual context of the dog’s behavior. Then, they edited the videos so that the dog’s behavior did not match the situation—showing a dog in a positive context reacting to a negative situation, and vice versa. These edited videos were then shown to 485 volunteers, who assessed how happy or sad, excited or calm they thought the dog was.
“When people saw a video of a dog reacting to a leash, they said the animal was excited and felt bad. But when participants saw a video of the same dog doing exactly the same thing, but this time reacting to its leash, everyone said it looked happy and calm. This means people were judging the dog’s emotions not based on its behavior, but according to the situation it was in,” explained Molinaro. However, when volunteers were asked what they considered most important for interpreting a dog’s emotions, they rarely chose “context of the situation,” despite the experiment showing that context had the strongest influence on their assessments.
The researchers also discovered that people projected their own emotions onto the dog. Participants who felt happier before the survey were more likely to believe the dog was happy, which increasingly complicated their ability to accurately assess the animal’s behavior.
So, how can you learn to interpret your dog’s behavior correctly? Holly Molinaro suggests being “more humble” when it comes to reading your dog’s emotions, considering that you might not be as good at it as you think. When we read the emotions of other people, we take into account culture, mood, situation, and behavioral traits. Studying your dog’s individual behavior and personality will also help you understand it better. “Every dog is unique; it has its own emotional signals that differ slightly,” said Molinaro. She believes this research will teach us to pay attention to our dogs’ signals and the subtle nuances of their behavior, rather than simply relying on stereotypes about canine emotions.
