Research finds dogs can read people's minds

If you have ever had the feeling your dog is reading your mind, there is no need to fear for your sanity.

A Canterbury University student has found that dogs have the ability to second guess what humans are thinking.

Psychology student Michelle Maginnity carried out a range of experiments to test whether 16 dogs could tell if humans knew where food was hidden.

That's not quite the test that I thought someone would do in order to say "dogs can second guess what humans think".

The dogs were placed in a room with two people with a screen placed between them and the dog. The food was hidden in one of four containers behind the screen by one of the people.

The dog was able to see who hid the food, but not where it was hidden. I do think all the time with my dog. It's called 'wait here while I hid your toy in the other room.' He obviously uses his nose, but then again, he can see the trajectory of my body movement.

When the screen was moved, both people would point at a container. Very trainable.

"In a majority of cases, the dogs would show a preference for the person who knew and go to the container they were pointing at," Maginnity said. Training...

The dogs were prevented from sniffing the food out because all the containers had food in them to cover the smell. The dogs would identify the correct container by going and placing its nose over it. If the dog was able to place its nose on it, and not scratch at it, and/or otherwise, then the dog was trained to that that action... and therefore the whole experiment is based on dog training, and not reading a human's mind.

"All of the dogs did 24 trials," Maginnity said. Repeat, repeat with positive reinforcement... that's called training, not mind reading. But hey, I know that my dog knows how I feel most of the time.

"There were between 62 and 70 per cent responses to the right person.

"What this showed was that the dogs were able to take the perspective of the humans involved and attribute states of knowledge to these people." Wow, that's a huge statement to make for such a simple test.

Maginnity believes this may show dogs have the ability to draw conclusions from what they observe.

My dog does. He knows that he is invisible in the dark, and likes to sneak away just when the front door is open. Or perhaps, he knows that the pound guy doesn't work the graveyard shift :)

"They have evolved alongside humans and so their behaviour had to change to fit that," Maginnity said.

"Those that were able to interpret human social cues would be better off than others."

I would like to know what age the dog are, how long the dog owners had the dog. Why? to show if they can read any human's mind or just their owner's mind. Remember the horse who could count? (in the '30's) Clever Hans was his name...

Maginnity admits she only keeps cats, but is keen to get a dog after carrying out her research.

"People in the department were surprised at the ability the dogs exhibited."

Peter Burtenshaw, secretary of the Christchurch Dog Training Club, said the news came as no surprise. "Most dog owners will tell you their dogs can work things out for themselves, given the opportunity and encouraged in the right way."