Dogs Perceive Their Owners’ Preferences (but do their own thing anyway)

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By Gina Wynn

Dogs are commonly referred to as “man’s best friend,” but are they really? Researchers from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary conducted a behavioral study to find out. They tested dogs’ understanding of their owners’ preferences and how they influenced the dogs’ decisions. Their results are published in Frontiers in Psychology.

The group wondered how dogs’ abilities compare to those of humans. “Eighteen-month-old children recognize that their own preference might differ from that of others and they understand how desire can be inferred from emotional expressions, but 14-month-olds do not. We wanted to test where dogs are on this scale,” said the study’s lead author, Eniko Kubinyi, as reported by Chrissy Sexton in the earth.com article “Dogs take their owners’ preferences into consideration.”

Dog Toy vs. Flowery Bracelet

When Kubinyi’s team observed 51 dogs interacting with their owners in the lab during the experiment, they saw similarities between the dogs and the 18-month-old children — the dogs seemed to be aware of their owners’ preferences.

For the study, the owners persuaded the dogs to choose from two items placed on a counter out of the dogs’ reach — a green, rubber ring-shaped dog toy and a plastic flower-patterned bracelet. But first, the owners of half the dogs looked at the dog toy and expressed disgust. Conversely, they showed happiness when admiring the bracelet. For the other group of dogs, the owners displayed fondness for the dog toy instead of the bracelet.

When the dogs indicated their selections, the dogs from the group where the owners reacted positively to the bracelet gazed at the bracelet for a while, considering the owner’s opinion. The dogs from the other group didn’t bother with the bracelet and looked right at the toy. Eventually, both groups ended up choosing the rubber toy.

A Dog-Eat-Dog World

The team wasn’t completely surprised by these results. “We knew that dogs respond to humans signaling their preference, but in previous studies, the dogs’ own priorities were not accounted for,” said Kubinyi. “In particular, we did not know how conflicting preferences between the dogs and the owner influence the behavior of dogs.”

But Kubinyi does not know for sure if dogs, like 18-month-old toddlers, understand that different people can have different opinions about the same object. She is certain, however, that her team’s research is the first to show that dogs are sensitive to their owners’ choices.

Maybe that’s why so many of us consider our dogs to be our best friends. But the study suggests that like most relationships, these friendships are complicated. No matter how good your dog may be, if you expect them to always act flawlessly in your favor, you could find yourself barking up the wrong tree.


Discussion Questions

  • If you have or know someone who has a dog, how can you tell if the dog has different preferences? Do you think the dog thinks about its owner’s preferences?
  • What happens when dogs are taught to obey commands like “Sit!” and “Roll over!”? Why do you think the dogs perform these tricks for their owners?

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