If we ask dog guardians about the funny things their pet does, most would say that there are a lot of them and the reason they are done is to make them laugh.
Dogs - and especially puppies - have comedic talent. Observe your own or watch puppy videos on Youtube. They literally live for the applause. So are dog owners right when they say that their animals do things to make them laugh and be happy? Science has the answer here too.
Scientist psychologist Veronika Konok referred to a study years ago entitled "Emotional communication between dogs and humans", which she presented at the Faculty of Science of Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. This study details a lot of research that has been done, which has concluded that dogs really do try to make people laugh. But is this done on purpose?
The impressive abilities of dogs
Dogs understand human emotions and react accordingly. How many times haven't you seen your dog come up to you and cuddle with you when you're crying while watching a teary movie?
Dogs are also able to distinguish the tone of our voice. If, for example, you ask them to take a piece of food in a happy voice, they will do it immediately. If you ask them in an angry way, they will hesitate and either take it late or not at all.
They are also more likely to engage with objects that have associated them with your own positive expressions or reactions than others that you have expressed negatively by showing negative emotions. Dogs also, according to research, respond more and more strongly to "positive" sounds. One of them is laughter.
Konok therefore concludes - like all other research - that these animals have an incredible ability to distinguish our emotions in any situation. And react accordingly. But: “The research doesn't really prove that our beloved dogs intentionally make us laugh. It shows that they react more strongly when they see us being positive, feeling good and laughing. So when we laugh at something, they may react accordingly. By making us laugh even more. But how and why? Let's say an example: If they steal something from us and we are happy, laugh and start the game, they will associate this action with something good and will do it again. They will steal this item again. And the game - which they are looking for - will start again", says Konok adding: "For this reason, the fact that dogs recognize our emotions, makes many of them able to be trained to become therapy dogs helping people who are in need".
So what we understand is that the events that cause us strong positive emotions and reactions, first of all laughter, our beloved four-legged friends remember them more easily, as we mentioned above, than those where our reaction was emotionally neutral. Which means that the most vivid memories of our puppy or dog are the moments when he did something and we laughed. We had fun, played and had a good time. So why not do it again?
Source: topetmou.gr