Is Your Dog Secretly Judging You?

Dogs have earned the title “Man’s Best Friend” but are they unwaveringly loyal or are they secretly judging you?

A team of scientists writing in Animal Cognition attempted to find out by investigating whether or not eavesdropping canines revealed a preference between two human volunteers – one who displayed generous behavior and another who acted selfishly. The results were unclear.

The experiment involved 40 pet dogs divided into three categories (young, adult, and senior) and two groups (eavesdropping and control). The eavesdropping group watched one of two “demonstrator” dogs – Jasper, an 11-year-old male labradoodle, or Emmi, a 4-year-old female labrador – interact with two volunteers, a generous volunteer who offered treats and a selfish volunteer who withheld them.

Meanwhile, a control group observed the same behavior with an “imaginary dog.” After watching the demonstration, the dogs had the chance to interact with the volunteers themselves as researchers monitored their behavior, specifically looking for signs such as jumping and approaching that showed they favored one volunteer over the other.

While the team expected the dogs to show a bias towards the generous volunteer, the results were surprisingly undiscerning. Indeed, only three dogs showed a notable preference towards one of the two volunteers after engaging directly with them, with two choosing the generous partner and one choosing the selfish partner. In all other cases, their behavior towards the volunteers was no different than what would be expected from chance.

Read More: Dogs Do Dream, and It’s Most Likely About Their Toys, Food, and You

In short, the study offers no direct evidence that dogs cast judgement on humans for their behavior – but there is also no direct evidence that dogs do not cast judgement on humans for their behavior.

The researchers attribute this lack of evidence to methodological challenges and more specifically, the decision to use a two-choice test. The team also suggests future research includes dogs with different life experiences, including free-ranging dogs, service dogs, and police dogs. While pets tend to be well looked after and receive friendly responses from humans, those facing different circumstances may be more sensitive to human actions – and more likely to cast judgement as a result.

"It's clear that reputation formation may be more complex than previously thought, even for animals like dogs that closely cooperate with humans," corresponding researcher Hoi-Lam Jim, from the faculty at Kyoto University, said in a press release.

This is not the first study investigating our canine friends’ ability to cast judgement on our behavior – and the results have been equally mixed. While some haven’t been able to show a connection, others suggest dogs really are more likely to pick humans displaying traits such as generosity, competency, and niceness.

For example, one published in 2017 found that adult dogs living with families and in shelters preferred humans that demonstrated generous behavior while puppies did not – suggesting experience may be an important player. Another noted that the dogs tested were significantly more likely to approach winners of a tug-of-war game.

For now, the answer appears to be inconclusive. What may take pet owners less by surprise is that previous studies suggest cats are completely unbothered by humans’ shady behavior, approaching volunteers no more or less frequently whether they were helpful or unhelpful to their owners or if they appeared friendly or aggressive.

Read More: How do Dogs Tell Time?

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

• Animal Cognition. Do dogs form reputations of humans? No effect of age after indirect and direct experience in a food-giving situation

Rosie McCall is a freelance writer living in London. She has covered science and health topics for publications, including IFLScience, Newsweek, and Health.