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A new set of experiments by researchers at Kyoto University suggests pet dogs can detect when a person is untrustworthy and will stop following that person’s cues.
Led by Akiko Takaoka and published in Animal Cognition, the study tested 34 pet dogs using an object-choice task to see whether dogs would follow a human pointing gesture after that person had given misleading information.
In the experiments, a researcher first pointed reliably to a container with food.
Later the same person pointed to an empty container after the dogs were shown where the food really was.
When that same person pointed again to the food-containing container, many dogs ignored the cue — indicating they had learned not to trust someone who had misled them.
In a control condition, a different (previously honest) experimenter pointed to the food and the dogs followed that new person’s cue.
Takaoka’s results — supported by earlier findings (for example, Anderson et al., 2017) — point to sophisticated social cognition in dogs: they don’t follow gestures blindly, but weigh a person’s past behaviour when deciding whom to trust.
The findings have practical implications for owners, trainers and anyone working with dogs, underscoring how experience and reputation shape canine responses to people.
Read the original report on Study.com: Study Shows Dogs Can Recognize a Bad-Intentioned Person.
