Dogs Can Understand Human's Point of View

A latest study reveals that dogs are capable of understanding situations from a human's point of view, reports BBC.

According to the study, conducted by Dr Juliane Kaminski of the University of Portsmouth's Department of Psychology, when a dog is not allowed to take food, he is four times more likely to steal the food that he was forbidden to eat when the lights are off so that the humans fail to notice him.

This clearly indicates that dogs can alter their behaviour based on their owner's perspective. They take into account what humans can see and what they cannot.

"That's incredible because it implies dogs understand the human can't see them, meaning they might understand the human perspective," Dr Kaminski said in a press statement.

Through this study Dr Kaminski wanted to examine whether dogs could differentiate between different levels of light as they were developing various strategies to grab the food that was forbidden.

She conducted a series of experiments in different light conditions. In each test the humans denied the dog food. She noticed that the dog grabbed more food in the dark and that too quickly as compared to when the room was lit.

The study had 42 female and 42 male domestic dogs who were one year old or more. The study included only those dogs that were comfortable without their owner, even in a dark a dark room.

The tests were complex and involved many variables to rule out that dogs were basing their decisions on simple associative rules, for example that dark means food.

What is clear from this study is that dogs can differentiate between drak and light.

According to the researcher, the dogs feel it's safer to steal the food from a dark room as they understand something of the human perspective. More research is needed in order to uncover the mechanism that is controlling the dogs' behaviour.

The study was published in the journal Animal Cognition.