Some attitudes of your dog at times make you doubt that he possesses the qualities of a clairvoyant. How does he know it’s bath time or you’re about to take him to the vet? The sure thing is that, just before you express your intentions, the dog disappears from your sight. Other times you will have noticed how he senses that it is time for the walk even if you take him for a walk at a time when he is not used to going out. How does? Is he able to read minds?
Empathy and observation, this is how your dog reads your thoughts
The key to understanding why your dog seems able to read minds is to be found in two key words: observation and empathy.
Dogs are extremely perceptive animals, especially with the humans they live with, and whom they consider their family.
In addition, they spend much of their time looking at you and studying your every movement, gesture and attitude in detail, which allows them to realize not only your moods , but also what you are about to do. This is how your four-legged friend manages to anticipate you and react accordingly.
Dogs understand our point of view
If you are unsure whether your dog empathizes with you, you can do a simple test: yawn in front of him. If he does the same, you are faced with the best display of empathy towards you.
In addition, to demonstrate that dogs can understand our point of life, an experiment was conducted in which a dog was asked to bring an object closer to its owner.
On the scene there were 2 elements that the dog could have collected, one could be seen by the person while the other could not. The dog, on the other hand, could see both objects without problems, but he always chose what his owner could see.
When he could not see either of the two objects, the dog randomly chose either of the two elements.
How do dogs decode what goes through their owners’ heads?
The key seems to lie in the fact that our dear four- legged friends are able to see things from a human point of view. This is how they manage to understand what is going through our head.
Through a study carried out by investigator Julianne Kaminski, of the Psychology department of the University of Portsmouth, England, we tried to explain how dogs are able to understand what we think.
Here are some conclusions reached:
Dogs are sensitive and perceptive beings
Among the various issues addressed by Kaminski, we can point out that dogs:
They understand the concept of darkness. For this reason they avoid doing things that have been forbidden to them in the sunlight. But when it is dark, they understand that no one can see them and they are not afraid to disobey orders.
They learn to read their masters’ body language . This way they know exactly what their next move will be. They also understand what is required of them, if done with precise signals.
They recognize people’s moods. They do this by decoding the facial expressions of human beings, which, combined with other behaviors, allows them to determine whether their masters are sad or happy.
Your dog can’t read minds, but …
Furthermore, according to Kaminski, dogs use their sensitive hearing to know when their owners are returning home, even if they are at a distance that cannot be perceived by the human ear.
Dogs also use their powerful sense of smell to identify diseases and pregnancies.
They can even pinpoint which people attract their owners the most, due to the hormones they produce and the attitudes that are assumed towards these people.
So, maybe your dog won’t be endowed with paranormal powers, but he has a number of important resources that allow him to understand what’s on your mind.
