Do you wonder why it seems that dogs understand when you are sad, happy, afraid or angry? Does your dog show empathy? Does it show jealousy?
Dogs are not just a good friend to humans — they are much more than that. They can be an aid, an ally, and a protector. Also, studies show that there are more things that dogs can do. Turns out, dogs can also read facial expressions.
Research suggests that domestic dogs have the tendency to experience negative emotions just like humans, especially when they have severe psychological conditions for a long period of time.
Dogs are handed with photographs of dog or human faces with various emotions. This is combined with noises such as barks and voices from the similar individual showing positive and negative emotion. Research shows that dogs pay more attention to the face, which has an expression that is parallel to the emotions presented by the noise, whether they are humans or dogs. This means that such abilities, which are previously seen in humans, were also observed in canines.
The research also suggests that a dog showing good behavior doesn’t always mean it’s friendly. In most cases, humans interpret tail wagging as a sign of friendliness and happiness. While tail wagging may indeed show positive emotions, a dog that wags its tail might also be experiencing insecurity, fear, dominance challenges, social problems or a desire to bite.
Recent research shows that dogs got these human-like traits when they evolved from wolves to house pets, which happened around 11,000 – 16,000 years ago. With these studies, it manifested that somehow dogs can adapt to any given situation the owner is displaying.
With this new research, it just shows that animals, like dogs, can adapt to any situation and can manifest feelings that their master is exhibiting.
Source: National Geographic
