Yet more research on the human-animal bond. This time the research was based at Barnard College’s Dog Cognition Lab.
Researchers Alexandra Horowitz and Julie Hecht asked members of the public to send them videos of playtime with their dogs.
They received 187 videos from dog owners in 19 different countries and watched them all, looking for patterns in human behaviour and the dog’s responses.
For example, they created a list of the top 35 words owners used with their dogs:
The research team also noticed gender differences. Female owners touch their dogs more when at play; half of male owners didn’t touch their dogs at all.
There is a practical application for this research (although I do agree that it sounds like a fun job). There is a growing interest in helping to train dogs as assistance dogs and understanding how humans and dog interact may help to refine training techniques.
The research has been published in the journal Animal Cognition.
Source: Discover magazine
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