People were found to project their own emotions and rely too much on context (Image: Getty)
owners often do not understand their pet’s emotions as well as they think they do, a study suggests. Researchers carried out experiments where they showed hundreds of people videos of dogs and asked them to rate how happy and excited the animals were. Participants were found to make assumptions about a dog’s emotions based on the context of its behaviour rather than by observing the dog itself.
Holly Molinaro, a PhD student in psychology and animal welfare at State University, said: “People do not look at what the dog is doing, instead, they look at the situation surrounding the dog and base their emotional perception on that. You see a dog getting a treat, you assume he must be feeling good. You see a dog getting yelled at, you assume he’s feeling bad.
Don’t miss…
“These assumptions of how you think the dog is feeling have nothing to do with the dog’s behaviour or emotional cues, which is very striking.”
In one experiment, researchers edited a video of a dog filmed in a happy scenario — such as being offered a leash or treat — to look like it had been filmed in an unhappy situation.
Observers were found to base their perceptions of the dog’s mood on the context of the video. Ms Molinaro added: “When people saw a video of a dog apparently reacting to a vacuum cleaner, everyone said the dog was feeling bad and agitated.
“But when they saw a video of the dog doing the exact same thing, but this time appearing to react to seeing his leash, everyone reported that the dog was feeling happy and calm.
“People were not judging a dog’s emotions based on the dog’s behaviour, but on the situation the dog was in.”
People also tended to project their own feelings onto the animals. Ms Molinaro said the first step to reading a dog’s emotions better was to be aware of these common failings.
Don’t miss…
She said: “We need to be humbler in our understanding of our dogs. Every dog’s personality, and thus her emotional expressions, are unique to that dog.
“Really pay attention to your own dog’s cues and behaviours. When you yell at your dog for doing something bad and she makes that guilty face, is it really because she is guilty, or is it because she is scared you are going to reprimand her more?
“Taking an extra second or two to focus on your dog’s behaviours, knowing that you need to overcome a bias to view the situation around the dog rather than the dog himself, can go a long way in getting a true read on your own dog’s emotional state, leading to a stronger bond between the two of you.”
The findings were published in the journal Anthrozoos.