Most
dog owners will tell you that their pets are loyal, socially intelligent
animals. Scientists in Japan showed domestic dogs avoid people
they have seen behave unhelpfully to their owners, using a cunning test.

The
experiment was designed to see whether dogs can evaluate humans interacting
with one another over an object. The result showed most dogs avoided taking
food from someone they had seen behaving negatively to, which in this case
means ignoring, their master.

During
the test, dogs watched their owners try to retrieve a roll of tape from a
sealed, transparent container, and then turn to an actor sitting next to them
to request help.
- In the first scenario the “nonhelper” actor refused to help and turned away.
- In the second experiment, the “helper” held the container steady when asked for help, while the owner opened the lid and retrieved the object.
- And in one further “control” test, the actor turned away but was not asked for help by the owner.
- For each scenario, a neutral person sat on the other side of the owner, and did not interact in the activity.
Immediately
afterwards, the actor and neutral person offered the dog food. Dogs tended to
avoid the “nonhelper” actor, who had behaved badly to their owner, and more
frequently took a treat from either the “helper”, the “control” actor or from
the neutral person. However
the dogs did not take food more often from the "helper" compared with
the "control" actor or neutral person.

54 dogs from a variety of breeds and their owners participated in the
study, which was published in the journal Animal Behaviour in
June this year. Dogs’
avoidance of someone who had behaved negatively to their owner suggests they
might understand third-party interactions, known as “social eavesdropping”.

Humans
are the most prolific social eavesdroppers. We often help one another for no
obvious benefit. This helps us operate in what the research team call
“large-scale co-operative societies”. In
humans, this sensitivity to interactions between others begins very early.
Six-month-old babies can evaluate others based on their social behaviour, one
study has suggested, showing preference to "helpful" over
"nasty" characters.

It
is known dogs are very sensitive to human actions directed at themselves, but
it has been debated whether they are able to evaluate their party interactions. The new study adds to the evidence that they do just this. The
scientists point out the fact that the dogs’ owners were involved in the
interaction could have influenced the result, writing:
“Attachments between dogs and their owners can be strong, and the
former may be particularly sensitive to how other people treat the latter.”
So
if you’re a dog owner, you can take comfort in the idea that if someone is mean
to you, you’ll have at least one “friend” by your side.

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