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”

  9. Christopher L Holt

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    Definitely! My Dobies did not care for a past friend of mine. I had to. keep them away when he came over. We are no longer friends. I have a good friend who is like a brother, My dogs like him but not his girlfriend.

  10. Lou Duran

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    I have always gone with my dogs intuition. They are right on. Had a roofing person come by over 20 years ago and my dogs hated them. Little did I know they were totally bad people. Read about them in the newspaper later on. They had beat an elderly homeowner. Do yes I trust my dogs completely !

  22. Lynda Davenport

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    I have always said that a kid, or dog can tell if a human is good or bad. And: at least my dogs always knew if I wasn’t feeling well. Never left my side. They also watched my kids like a hawk!

  41. Pam Hibberd

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    Going out one evening my dog a staff saved me from a man that was following me unbeknown to me..I felt her pulling her lead behind me I’m saying come on and trying to pull her to the front of me which she tugged harder and it was getting darker and a grassy path that only you would walk a dog..I then looked round as she started to growling and bearing her teeth.. I was surprised to see a young chap about 25 standing behind me but he kept looking at my dog who was looking very agree which she had never done that to anyone..You could tell he wasn’t sure about the dog he stood looking at me then walked away thank god..But he went on that same night to murder a young girl in Dartford.. my dog saved my life she knew he was evil..

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