Domestic dogs are much more likely to steal food when they think nobody
can see them, suggesting for the first time that dogs are capable of
understanding a human’s point of view.
Many dog owners think their pets are clever or that they understand
humans but, until now, this has not been tested by science.
Dr Juliane Kaminski, of the University of Portsmouth’s Department of
Psychology, has shown that when a human forbids a dog from taking food, dogs
are four times more likely to disobey in a dark room than a lit room,
suggesting they take into account what the human can or cannot see.
Dr Kaminski said: “That’s incredible because it implies dogs
understand the human can’t see them, meaning they might understand the human
perspective.”
This is the first study to examine if dogs differentiate between
different levels of light when they are developing strategies on whether to
steal food. It’s published in the Journal of Animal Cognition.
Dr Kaminski said: “Humans constantly attribute certain qualities and
emotions to other living things. We know that our own dog is clever or
sensitive, but that’s us thinking, not them.”
“These results
suggest humans might be right, where dogs are concerned, but we still can’t be
completely sure if the results mean dogs have a truly flexible understanding of
the mind and others’ minds. It has always been assumed only humans had this
ability.”
Source: Juliane Kaminski, Andrea
Pitsch, Michael Tomasello. Dogs steal in the dark. Animal Cognition, 2012; DOI:10.1007/s10071-012-0579-6