Your dog barks even when there’s not another dog or squirrel in sight. Your cat hides for days, for no reason that you can fathom. Your hamster looks at you quizzically while waiting for you to refill its water. Your scaly green iguana sits still for hours as if engaged in a one-animal staring contest with the world.
Does your pet’s behavior ever have you scratching your head and wondering what’s going on in their heads and hearts?
We all love our pets — despite, or perhaps because of, their occasionally mystifying behavior. But just how well do you think you know and understand your pet? (Do you think they know us any better?) Or, do you think we humans can never truly know what’s going on in their animal minds?
In “Think You Understand Your Dog? Think Again.” Emily Anthes writes about a new study that suggests that many owners, despite their love and affection, often misinterpret the emotions of their canine pets:
Dogs can’t talk, but their body language speaks volumes. Many dogs will bow when they want to play, for instance, or lick their lips and avert their gaze when nervous or afraid.
But people aren’t always good at interpreting such cues — or even noticing them, a new study suggests.
In the study, the researchers presented people with videos of a dog reacting to positive and negative stimuli, including a leash, a treat, a vacuum cleaner and a scolding. When asked to assess the dog’s emotions, viewers seemed to pay more attention to the situational cues than the dog’s actual behavior, even when the videos had been edited to be deliberately misleading. (In one video, for instance, a dog that appeared to be reacting to the sight of his leash had actually been shown a vacuum cleaner by his owner.)
“When it comes to just perceiving dog emotions, we think we know what’s happening, but we’re actually subconsciously relying on a lot of other factors,” said Holly Molinaro, who is a doctoral student at Arizona State University and the first author of the new paper, which was published on Monday in the journal Anthrozoös.
That bias could mislead owners about their dogs’ well-being, Ms. Molinaro said. People who want to be attentive to their dog’s experiences and emotions need to “take a second or two to actually focus on the dog rather than everything else that’s going on,” she said.
For the study, Ms. Molinaro, working with her adviser Clive Wynne, a canine-behavior expert at Arizona State, created videos that allowed people to see a dog’s behavior without seeing what was unfolding around it. Ms. Anthes explains:
… Ms. Molinaro began recording videos of her family dog, Oliver, a 14-year-old pointer-beagle mix, interacting with her father. In some of the videos, Ms. Molinaro’s father did things that Oliver was likely to respond to positively, such as show him his leash or a toy. In others, he did things that were likely to elicit more negative reactions, such as gently scold Oliver or present him with Ms. Molinaro’s cat, Saffron. (“He was not a fan,” she said.)
Then, after a crash course in video editing, Ms. Molinaro made versions of each video that removed all of the situational context, leaving footage of Oliver, alone, on a black background.
The researchers asked hundreds of undergraduates to watch both sets of videos and assess Oliver’s emotional state in each clip. When the subjects evaluated the original videos, they rated Oliver’s emotions as more positive in the positive scenarios than in the negative ones. But when the context was removed, they rated Oliver’s emotions as equally positive in both types of situations.
Then, the scientists took things a step further by splicing together footage from different situations — showing, for instance, Ms. Molinaro’s father presenting a vacuum alongside footage of Oliver’s response to seeing his leash.
Viewers seemed to be swayed more by the context than by Oliver’s behavior. When Ms. Molinaro’s father was depicted doing something positive, subjects judged Oliver’s emotions to be positive, even if he had been filmed reacting to something negative.
“There’s no evidence at all that people actually see the dog,” Dr. Wynne said. “They seem to have a sort of a big blind spot around the dog himself.”
The study has limitations, including that it was based on the behavior of just a single dog. People might also perform better when asked to evaluate the emotions of their own dogs, Dr. Wynne said, and probably would have noticed signs of intense terror or trauma. (The scientists did not subject Oliver to any extremely negative experiences.)
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
Do you have any pets or have you ever had pets? If so, tell us about them and what you find most endearing about them. Are there any aspects of their behavior you find mystifying or confusing? If you have never had pets, think about animals you may have interacted with or observed closely.
How well do you think you know your pet — their emotions, thoughts and behavior? What evidence do you have that you are interpreting their inner feelings correctly?
Ms. Molinaro’s study suggests that dogs provide many clues as to what they may be feeling, but that humans often miss them. Instead, owners frequently interpret a dog’s emotions based on situational context and have “a big blind spot” for the actual animal. What’s your reaction to the research findings? Does it make you think you might be misunderstanding your own pet’s experiences and emotions more than you previously thought?
Dr. Wynne believes the study can be a “wake-up call for pet owners.” He said of his own dog: “I’m making it a project to learn how she expresses herself. Because if I know what makes her happy and unhappy, well, then I can guide her life toward greater happiness.” Does reading the article make you want to understand your pet more? What do you think you can do to deepen your comprehension?
If you could ask your pet one question and have them answer, what would it be, and why?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
