Some would have you believe that dogs are the less mysterious, more emotional counterparts of cats.
While cats, for example, sneakily stretch or head-butt their owners to show their love, dogs wag their tails and jump for joy.
Such naive behavior might lead you to believe that straightforward dogs are less able to recognize your more complex emotions.
But according to some research, your dog may be able to understand you better than you think—he may even notice when you’re messing with him.
So my dog knows when I’m lying?
Probably, if a 2021 article on the subject published in the Royal Society is to be believed.
The researchers used a variation of the so-called “Sally Anne” test to find out whether dogs know that you are lying.
A common test performed on children is the “Sally Anne” test, in which they imagine a person (Sally) placing a marble in a basket and then leaving the room.
When she is gone, another person (Anne) puts the marble in the box. The children are then asked where Sally will go to get the marble when she returns. Those who can see the scene clearly know that she will probably look in the basket first because she does not know about Anne’s antics.
Dogs can’t speak, but they can eat. Scientists tested their understanding with food.
They hid food in one of two buckets and had “Sally” show them the right one.
Then “Anne” changed the buckets either in front of or behind Anne’s back.
Sally called them to the bucket she thought was the “right” one. Most of the time, the dogs ran to the right bucket anyway – but when they followed Sally’s wrong advice, it was almost always after Anne had “tricked” them.
If Anne had switched the buckets in front of Sally, the likelihood that they would obey her order would have been far lower.
What does this mean?
This suggests that dogs not only understand when commands are incorrect, but that they may also be doing a deceived Sally a favor.
It could also indicate that they can distinguish a harmless mistake from a deliberate lie and have much less time for the latter.
Speaking to Live Science, the researchers explained: “Because more dogs refused to follow a human informant who knew where the food was (as opposed to one who did not know) but still pointed to the empty cup, we thought the dogs might have perceived their suggestion as ‘misleading.'”
This is not proof; scientists call it an “exciting hypothesis.”
If your dog still doesn’t seem to be very interested in your ball-throwing antics, now you know why…
