Watch Your Back: Your Dog May Be Manipulating You

Flickr/Thomas Hawk

A dog is a man’s and woman’s best friend, right? Well, your beloved pupper could be part friend, part frenemy. No, we’re being completely serious. Researchers found that your dog may be conscious of his or her facial expressions and has the ability to distinguish between humans who are generous with dog treats, as opposed to those who are not. Even worse: your furry friends may be using those facial expressions and other cognitive abilities to get what they want from you.

In a study published by Scientific Reports, researchers monitored 24 canine participants’ facial expressions and movements using a video camera. In a series of experiments, the researchers placed a human participant in a room with each dog, facing toward the dog and then facing away.

The results were clear: on average, the dogs produced more facial expressions, particularly using their tongues and raised eyebrows when the human participant was facing them. What researchers deduced from the results was that dogs really do use facial expressions to communicate to humans.

What is even more surprising is that dogs may be using their facial expressions to influence the behavior of humans in their presence. In another study published by Animal Cognition, researchers paired 27 dog participants with two human partners each: one who was cooperative and allowed the dog to eat treats, and one who was competitive and withheld treats.

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After the dogs distinguished between the cooperative and competitive humans over the course of a day, they were tasked with leading each human partner to one of three boxes: one with sausage, one with a less-appetizing dog treat and one with nothing. After a few days, researchers found that overall, the dogs were more likely to lead cooperative partners to the sausage, presumably because the dogs learned that the cooperative partners would allow them to eat it.

On the flip side, the dogs were more likely to lead the competitive partners to the bowl with nothing so that the dogs could finish the task and return with the cooperative partner to the sausage bowl. The most intriguing part of the trial was that, using a video camera, researchers found that the dogs gave cooperative partners more “puppy eyes” than the competitive partners, thus trying to exert their influence to get more treats.

So, what are we supposed to do with this research — to assume our dogs are trying to control us? Not exactly. But it is important to consider that maybe our dogs know more than we think he or she does. We’ll probably still be giving our beloved pets table scraps, but that’s on us. Now we know.