Science: Dogs Can Understand Human POV. They're Also Sneaky Bastards
It's no wonder that the dog is known as "man's best friend." They're there for us at every turn. When we've had a bad day at work, the dog welcomes us home with a wagging tail, as if nothing that terrible happened in the first place. The dog also helps keep us in shape, making us get off our lazy butts and give them a walk, even when we don't feel like it. It's those little things that make them worth the trouble. They seem to love us unconditionally, and for that, we love them back. It's a simple relationship; at least that's what it seems like. But as more and more research is conducted into just how Fido's brain works, it's becoming clear that dogs are pretty smart, and they use those brains to be quite the sneaky bastards when they want to be.
If you're a dog owner, here's a familiar scenario. Your little guy is well behaved when it comes to food. Never tries to take it off the table when you're not looking, even if he begs a little, he lays down and stops being annoying when you tell him to. In general, you're happy with how he respects your food. And then you leave the house/apartment, and all hell breaks loose. You return home and that bowl of chips you left out is decimated. The bowl too. Little guy got up on the counter, knocked the bowl over, ate the chips and some of the damn bowl, just because. This is something he would never do while you were there. And that's the problem.
According to tests run by Dr. Juliane Kaminski, a psychology professor at the University of Portsmouth, dogs are four times as likely to eat food when that food is in the dark, because they understand that you're not there and can't see as well, even if you are. In other words, they know how we see things, and they're taking advantage of that.
In her experiments — using 42 male and 42 female dogs — Kaminski had their human owners tell the dog not to eat the food in a lit room. Then the dog was left alone with the food and the lights were turned out. The dogs, almost every time, went to town on the food once the room was darkened. "The results of these tests suggest that dogs are deciding it's safer to steal the food when the room is dark because they understand something of the human's perspective," wrote Kaminski, in a report published in Animal Cognition.
We guess we could shrug this off as basic instincts in dogs. That their ancestors — the wolf — probably hunted a lot in the dark because it was safer, and so the dog is naturally inclined to go after our food when we're not there, or under the cover of darkness. But we know what's happening. Our furry best friend is just acting like our human best friend: He's around to make us feel better, but turn your back and you better believe they're taking that slice of pizza. They're bastards alright, our best bastards.
[Pic via Flickr - Shane Adams]
