Psychology Facts

▲ Dogs ▲

》Dogs are four times more likely to bite or become aggressive when walked by a male. It's thought that this stems from dogs' ability to pick up on a walker's emotions or aggression.

》 The way a dog's tail wags – right or left – seems to have different meanings as a non-verbal communicator (although contradicting interpretations exist).

》 Male dogs prefer to play with female dogs, whereas female dogs do not discriminate between playmates. This may arise from an evolutionary necessity for mothers to care for pups of both sexes

》Walking your dog regularly can lead to better behavior for them (and better health for you)!

》Dogs can learn by modeling behaviors of other dogs. As a result, it's easier to train a new puppy with an already-trained older dog in the house.

》Dogs also learn from human emotions! A dog can translate their owner's emotions and behaviors to the object a person is looking at. Thus, your dog may be more likely to interact with a toy that you have already interacted with positively.

》MRI testing has shown that a canine brain reacts similarly to sounds of joy and pain in much the same way as a human, meaning that dogs are able to understand the differences in human vocal intonations and the meanings behind them.

》A recent study in Current Biology showed dogs respond to nonverbal and verbal cues at a similar level to human two-year-olds. Some dogs are even able to understand basic sign language.

》Curiosity may motivate the traditional canine bottom-sniff greeting. Scent matching can allow a dog to place another dog at the site of a marking. Your dog may be trying to match smells along their route with dogs they meet.