We love to treat our dogs like humans. We dress them up. Treat them as our most trusted confidants. Attribute human emotions to them. Reserve dependable pet sitters who will treat them like human children. Feed them top-quality, human-grade dog meals. Do dogs, however, believe that humans are also dogs when the roles are reversed?
Canines know how big their foes are just by listening to them
Dogs pay close attention to each other’s growls, as any dog owner knows, and for good reason. According to a recent study, dogs can determine another dog’s size just by listening to its growl. A dog hearing a growl can match the sound to a picture of the growler because the size information is so precise—a complex cognitive ability previously only found in primates.
Péter Pongrácz, an ethologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, and colleagues demonstrated in a prior study that dogs guard a tasty bone with a particular growl called “this bone is mine.” A listening dog always stops in its tracks when it hears the growl. In their latest study, the researchers examined the reactions of dogs who were seated next to their owners so that they felt at ease in the laboratory. On a screen in front of them, images of 24 of the 96 dogs were displayed (see image). One image depicted a small dog that was no taller than 52 cm, while the other projected the same dog as being no taller than 60 cm (a 30% increase in size). The controls were displayed to the other dogs and consisted of either large and small triangles or silhouettes of large and small cats.
The researchers then used a speaker placed between the two projected slits to play recorded food-guarding growls from either a large or small dog. When the dogs heard the growls, the scientists recorded the dogs’ facial expressions on camera (see video). Credit: Tamas Farago.
Dogs that listened to the growls when either s of cats or dogs were shown spent more time looking at the pictures than did dogs looking at the triangles, the team reports online today in PLoS ONE. And 20 of the 24 dogs that were shown two dog s while listening to the growl matched the sound and photograph by looking at the correct first and for a longer period of time. Dogs that were shown a cats while listening to the growl generally looked to the left—a reaction that supports other studies suggesting that dogs look to the left when they encounter something new and unexpected.
According to Pongrácz, the results show that “when growling, dogs dont lie about their size.” “So a listening dog can determine the exact size of the other dog”—and then choose whether to engage in combat or flee. He continues, “Scientists have demonstrated for the first time that a listening animal can estimate the size of another animal from its call. “.
It’s a fantastic study, says cognitive ethologist Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and “clear evidence that dogs have mental representations” of their environment. “It just makes so much sense and shows what wild animals have to do on a daily basis,” They need a non-interactive method of judging the size of a rival, especially if they’re likely to get hurt, lose their territory, or lose their friends in the process. “.
According to Brian Hare, a researcher in animal cognition at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, the study is also likely to inspire additional studies using dogs’ capacity to match sounds to photographs. Does it follow that if dogs make assumptions about a dog’s size based on its growl, they also make the same assumptions about people?
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Instead, owners of small dogs observe the opposite phenomenon: small dogs believe they are large. Lap dogs have a sort of Napoleon Complex; they act as though they are big, scary, and extremely threatening, thinking they are the household’s guardians.
When you Google “big dogs think they’re lap dogs,” hundreds of results will show up with links to exactly that: big dogs, weighing between 60 and 90 pounds, sitting on (and typically slamming) an unassuming person.
They discovered that upon hearing a growl, dogs frequently recognized the size of another dog. In other words, they learned that the growl of big dogs and small dogs differs, and that other people can use the growl as a size indicator.
Whatever the answer, one thing is certain: the dog’s heart, not its size, determines its character. Or, I guess, the growl. Featured via.
And if you’re fortunate enough to own a large dog, you probably don’t need to do a Google search to realize that this bizarre (yet hilarious) fact exists.
Why are small dogs so mean?
Because they have more to fear, small breeds may be more likely to take a defensive stance. Alternately, the behavior of small dogs’ owners may be the cause of their reactivity. Pet owners of small breeds may be overly protective of them, failing to socialize them or teach them how to handle stressful situations.
FAQ
Do dogs know other dogs size?
Just by listening to their adversaries, canines can determine their size. Dogs pay close attention to each other’s growls, as any dog owner knows, and for good reason. According to a recent study, dogs can determine another dog’s size just by listening to its growl.
Do little dogs think they are big?
If your small dog reacts fearfully or even violently to larger dogs, it might be because they are afraid. As a result, larger dogs often lunge, bark, or snap at them. It appears from this behavior that small dogs think they are bigger than they actually are.
Can dogs tell the difference between size?
The results of the Taylor experiment demonstrate that domestic dogs possess the cognitive capacity to combine acoustic cues to size (by listening to the growl made) with visual cues to size (by looking at the other dog), enabling them to construct a more precise picture of the other animal’s condition.
Do big dogs know little dogs are dogs?
In spite of this, the study suggests that dogs can recognize other dogs just by looking at them. Dogs appear to be able to distinguish between who (or at least which images) belongs in the “dog” category and who does not.