Can Dogs Tell If You’re A Bad Person? The Answer Is Fascinating

by pawbuzz on in Dogs 390

Have you ever noticed that your dog seems to react strangely to certain people?

It’s not uncommon for dog owners to notice that their dogs don’t like particular people, although sometimes it’s unclear why.

Your perfectly well-behaved dog can suddenly start barking angrily at a stranger, or refuse to take a treat from a friend who comes to visit. It’s always surprising, but usually dog owners just write it off as their dog being weird.

Interestingly, there’s actually a scientific reason your dog may randomly act strangely toward certain people — they can tell if someone is a bad person!

If you own a dog, you probably know that they’re pretty intuitive creatures who have good judgment.

The fact that they can tell if someone is a good or bad person may not surprise you, but it’s fascinating to learn more about how researchers tested dogs’ judgment.

If you’ve ever noticed that your dog reacts negatively toward certain people, there’s actually scientific evidence that it may be because they recognize that they’re a bad person.

Researchers tested the hypothesis that dogs can tell if people are being mean to one another.

An article published in Neuroscience and Behavioural Reviews claims that dogs can recognize when someone is being a good person, and are particularly adept at realizing when people are being horrible to one another.

To perform the study, researchers had dog owners act out two separate scenarios while their dogs watched.

In the first scenario, the dog owner struggled to open a container, then asked two researchers to help. One researcher helped, while the other stood by passively.

In the second scenario, the dog owner again struggled with a container and asked for help. One researcher watched passively, but the other actively refused to help.

After both scenarios, researchers offered the dog a treat.

In the first scenario, the dog was just as likely to take a treat from the passive researcher as the helpful researcher.

In the second scenario, however, the dog was much more likely to ignore the treat from the person who was mean to their owner (refused to help).

The researchers concluded that dogs can tell when someone is being mean to another person, then they react accordingly.

So if your dog ever refuses to take a treat from someone for seemingly no reason, they may actually think that they’re a bad person.

Do you think your dog has good intuition and judgment?

If you love learning about dogs, please SHARE this article with your friends and family!

[H/T Country Living]



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390 thoughts on “Can Dogs Tell If You’re A Bad Person? The Answer Is Fascinating”

  5. Ruth Catherine King

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    I definitely believe 100% they can , my dog met identical twins one time and the one twin she jumped all over and was so excited . The other she would pull her lips back and growl her back would go up. So they definitely can sense something

  11. Shannon Egusquiza

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    My female lab hated one guy living next to us in an RV park. He never said anything to my dogs, never talked to us but say hi every once in awhile. One day I was outside and he asked if he could pet her and I said yes, but it went south quick. Her hair was standing up, she was showing her teeth and barking. We have never seen her do this before.

  31. Alison Palmer

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    Dill has never liked Alan Norris even though he’s always been kind and helpful to me and my late husband. He’s known Alan since he was a pup. He’s always run away barking incessantly. After 7 years he no longer barks as much but still keeps his distance and remains wary. No one can fathom why!

  48. Mirna N JJ Guerrero

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    Our dog would aggressively bark at our neighbor and only him and we also noticed that every other dog in the neighborhood that were adjacent to his house or nearby would bark aggressively at him too when he would be outside in his yard. I truly believe this!

  49. Ali Brookes

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    My dog hates one friend so much she attacks him , i have to lock her away , after 2 years, he is the only one she does this 2.. minipoodle. Kinda funny but not, he is the father off 2 off my grandchildren.

  50. Summah Smith

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    100% true! When I was with my ex partner who badly abused me both physically and emotionally and damn well near killed me my Shepherd didn’t like him. Whenever I was near my ex with my girl she was ok with him because I was there with her. But if I wasn’t there, completely different story. I believe she knew my ex Matt was a horrible man who was mistreating her mum. I believe she could sense how unhappy I was and how I feared Matt. And my girl isn’t a nasty dog. She hasn’t got a mean bone in her body so to show aggression towards him I knew something wasn’t right. On our way to a shift one night when I used to do security dog handling I was inside at Matt’s place. I went in to go to the bathroom and I didn’t know he had gone outside to my car. Just as I made my way back outside to head to the car I seen Matt talking to Happy as she sat in the back seat. He went to stick his arm in to give her a pat and she went to lunge at him and bite him. She started to bark and snarl. And I have never seen her react like that before. Matt backed away but she continued to bark and snarl getting right up at the window. She didn’t calm down until I got to the car and stood next to Matt. I believe she was trying to tell me to leave him.

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