Sorry To Tell You, But You’re Probably Misunderstanding Your Dog’s Emotions

That’s what Arizona State University researchers Holly Molinaro and Clive Wynne found when they conducted two experiments to investigate the factors that might affect how humans perceive the emotions of dogs.

In the first, they showed human participants videos of a dog in happy situations (like getting a treat) and less happy situations (such as being told off, or the appearance of the terrifying beast that is the vacuum cleaner), both with and without the visual background.

In the second experiment, participants were shown videos that had been edited so that the dog and the situation were mismatched. For example, a dog filmed responding to the appearance of a leash (aka time for walkies) was instead edited to look like it was responding to a vacuum cleaner.

For both experiments, participants were asked to rate how happy and excited they thought the dogs were and describe what they thought the dogs were feeling – and it turns out that we’re really not paying that much attention to our pooch pals at all. In fact, participants were basing what they thought the dog’s emotions were on the other visuals in the video.

“People do not look at what the dog is doing, instead, they look at the situation surrounding the dog and base their emotional perception on that,” said Molinaro in a statement.

“In our study, when people saw a video of a dog apparently reacting to a vacuum cleaner, everyone said the dog was feeling bad and agitated. But when they saw a video of the dog doing the exact same thing, but this time appearing to react to seeing his leash, everyone reported that the dog was feeling happy and calm. People were not judging a dog’s emotions based on the dog’s behavior, but on the situation the dog was in.”

That goes for the presence of humans in the videos too; when a human was seen doing something positive, participants rated the dogs as being happier and more excited, even if the dog had originally been recorded in a less happy situation.

Luckily, Molinaro has some good advice on how we can start to get better at understanding our canine companions – and you’ve already made a good start just by knowing about this research.

“The first step is just to be aware that we are not that good at reading dogs’ emotions,” said Molinaro. “We need to be humbler in our understanding of our dogs. Once we can start from a basis of understanding our biases, we can begin to look at our pups in a new light.”

“Every dog’s personality, and thus her emotional expressions, are unique to that dog,” Molinaro continued. “Really pay attention to your own dog’s cues and behaviors.” 

“Taking an extra second or two to focus on your dog’s behaviors, knowing that you need to overcome a bias to view the situation around the dog rather than the dog himself, can go a long way in getting a true read on your own dog’s emotional state, leading to a stronger bond between the two of you.”

The study is published in the journal Anthrozoös.