A shocking study has revealed that dogs are actually more intelligent than all animals. Their level of intelligence is almost at par with that of human beings. That is why these canines can interpret facial expressions, understand words, follow instructions and obey commands. But that is not all, they can also display various human emotions such as jealousy, empathy and so on.
These animals, whose great-great ancestors were wolves can be very observant and protective of their owners. This is certainly not an animal behavior, but a human one. Just as we eavesdrop so do dogs listen in.
In a study involving 54 dogs together with their owners, each dog watched its owner struggle to retrieve a tape roll from a container. The canines were split into three groups i.e helper, non-helper as well as control.
In the helper group, the owner asked for assistance from another person, who held the container. In the non-helper group, the owner asked for help from a person, who then turned their back without helping. In the control group, the second person turned their back without being asked for help. In all experiments, there was a third(neutral) person who sat in the room.
At the end of the first round of the experiment, the helpers, non-helpers and the neutral individuals both offered treats to individual dogs.
An Experiment Proves that Dogs Love People Who Love their Owners and Hate People Who Do Not
In the helper group, dogs did not favor the helpers’ treats over the neutral persons’. They chose them equally. In the non-helper group, dogs most frequently chose the neutral persons’ treats over the non-helpers’. This can only indicate one thing, dogs love people who love their owners and hate people who do not.
Dogs Have a Unique Ability to Perceive Eye Contact from Humans
Trained dogs have an extraordinary ability in animals to focus on your face as opposed to what you are looking at. It is like they perceive your eye contact message. At least that is what another experiment involving a few dogs and their owners revealed. There were two groups of dogs; trained and untrained. While the untrained dogs followed their master’s gaze at a certain direction where an object was thrown, their trained counterparts did not get distracted by that object. Their focus remained on the face of their owner as if they were reading their thoughts. Most animals’ attention would be shifted if an object was suddenly thrown toward a certain direction.
Final Thoughts
Going with the results of these two mind-blowing experiments, it is safe to say that dogs are slightly different animals with extraordinary intelligence hardly seen in the animal kingdom. They are able to interpret our gestures, as well as read our thoughts and attitudes, especially if trained. Which other animal do you think has these mind-blowing abilities?
