Turn Down A Biscuit From A Bad Guy – A Sure Sign Of Loyalty — Dave’s Diary

A trip to the dog park at Randall Park is becoming a bit of a routine at our house.  There is plenty of space for an active dog to stretch its legs and burn off some energy.  You meet an interesting mix of folks there too with some very loyal dogs.A new study reveals that some dogs are so loyal that they will actually snub people  who are mean to their owners.

Researchers from Kyoto University in Japan tested three groups of dogs. In all three groups the owners of the dogs pretended they needed to open a box. In each group, the owner was accompanied by two people whom the dog did not know.

In the first group, the owner asked one of the strangers for assistance, and the stranger refused to help.

In the second group, the owner asked the strangers for help and received help from one, and in both groups the second stranger was neutral and did not help nor refuse to help.

After watching each scene, a dog was offered food by the two unfamiliar people in the room. Dogs that saw their owner get the brush off from the stranger were much more likely to take food from the neutral observer and ignore the person who refused to help their owner.

Researchers explain that if the dogs were only acting out of self-interest, there would have been no differences among the groups, and they would have accepted food equally from different people.

Study leader say they discovered for the first time that dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people regardless of their direct interest. This ability is one of the key factors in building a highly collaborative society and this study shows that dogs share that ability with humans.

So a dog really IS man’s best friend, even when it costs Fido a free meal!

(Daily Mail)