Dogs Save Us From Bad Friendships
It is quite rightly said time and again that dogs are man’s best friends. Already on the first day of this relationship between humans and animals, a wonderful loyalty and unconditional love arises. It is therefore not surprising to know that your dog can save you from bad friendships too .
It’s not jealousy, it’s pure love. Find out more on this topic in today’s article.
Dogs recognize the intentions of friends and other people around them
Our beloved four-legged friends protect us from various dangers and many ailments. If you’re not entirely convinced of this, read on to see what a research study published in Current Biology has confirmed.
The scientists in this study found that dogs have the ability to foresee human actions.
This study confirmed that when dogs make eye contact with a person (whether or not they are the owner), they are more likely to follow their movements around a room. Babies from 6 months of age also have this “ability” by the time they begin to speak.
Dogs are sensitive to signs and signals from people and this has at least one purpose: When dogs were domesticated as working animals, an efficient method was sought to communicate with four-legged friends.
How could this be done? Through the look. Although dogs were initially used for sheep herding or hunting, they have retained this ability as pets until now.
An older research study published in Learning & Beavior magazine found that dogs beg for food from those who look at them, not from those who pay no attention.
Four-legged friends can learn the meaning of around 165 words, which is roughly the same as the vocabulary of a two-year-old child.
In another study, the behavior of two different groups of dogs was observed. The first group was greeted with “hello” by someone who looked them in the eye. There was no eye contact with the second group. This second group had the least interest in people.
Dogs can protect against bad friendships
We are not always aware of this, but dogs are very intelligent and extremely intuitive. You become aware of things that we ourselves may not be paying attention to. For example, you can tell if we are happy, angry, or jealous.
However, they also know which people should not necessarily be trusted. If this is the case, they are not following the instructions, but they are very vigilant to anticipate possible bad actions.
An experiment conducted by the University of Kyoto in Japan and in the journal Animal Cognition was published, could prove to dogs that are also aware if someone can not be trusted. They tested 34 fur noses for this.
The dogs were shown different things in three rounds: food hidden in a container, an empty container and a container with food. The fur noses used their experience to judge whether a person is trustworthy or not.
After three rounds, the dogs followed the instructions of the person who had earned their trust. Akiko Takaoka, the head of this study, confirms that the dogs evaluated the trustworthiness of people because they have a very high intelligence that is better developed than ours in certain areas.
How can your dog protect you from bad friendships?
From these studies, we can see how dogs can help us escape bad friendships. For example, if a new “friend” comes home and your dog reacts negatively by barking, growling, or staring at him intensely … be careful!
You shouldn’t take your dog’s reaction lightly. Observe his behavior when you are with other people. If your dog stays calm and relaxed, or if he falls asleep, then there are no problems … he has accepted your friendships and there is nothing to fear.
