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Dogs Comfort Owners Intentionally When They're Upset, Study Confirms

Dogs Comfort Owners Intentionally When They're Upset, Study Confirms

A new study confirms dogs will go out of their way to comfort their distressed owners. (Francis Gonzalez Sanchez/Dreamstime)

By    |   Wednesday, 25 July 2018 05:27 PM EDT

Dogs will not only try to comfort upset owners but also will go out of their way to do so, according to a new study detailing how some dogs comfort humans, Johns Hopkins University said in a statement about the work.

The study detailed in the journal Learning & Behavior showed that dogs with a strong bond with their owners rushed to push through a door when they heard their owner crying, the university said.

While earlier studies showed that dogs were highly responsive to human crying, the Johns Hopkins team is believed to be the first to demonstrate that dogs who detect emotional distress in their owner will hurry to do something about it, the statement said.

"We found dogs not only sense what their owners are feeling, if a dog knows a way to help them, they'll go through barriers to provide help to them," lead author Emily Sanford, a graduate student Johns Hopkins Department of Psychological and Brain Science, said in the university's statement.

Sanford did the research as an undergraduate at Macalester College in Minnesota, the statement said. According to The Telegraph, researchers took 34 dogs and positioned them behind a door which was closed with magnets, with their owners on the other side.

The owners were asked to pretend to cry or hum "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," to gauge the dog's reaction, The Telegraph wrote. The researchers measured the dogs' stress levels and found those who were able to push through the door to "rescue" their owners showed less stress, meaning they were upset by the crying, but not too upset to take action, the publication said.

For the dogs who didn't push open the door, it seemed they cared too much, appearing

too troubled by the crying to do anything, the researchers believe, The Telegraph noted.

"Dogs have been by the side of humans for tens of thousands of years and they've learned to read our social cues," Sanford said in the Johns Hopkins statement. "Dog owners can tell that their dogs sense their feelings. Our findings reinforce that idea, and show that, like Lassie, dogs who know their people are in trouble might spring into action."

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TheWire
Dogs will not only try to comfort upset owners but also will go out of their way to do so, according to a new study detailing how some dogs comfort humans.
dogs, comfort, owners, study
366
2018-27-25
Wednesday, 25 July 2018 05:27 PM
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