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How do the dogs know if an action is intentional or unintentional? Is it from the emotions, e.g. when someone intentionally withholds a reward they look angry,

How do the dogs know if an action is intentional or unintentional? Is it from the emotions, e.g. when someone intentionally withholds a reward they look angry, but when they unintentionally withhold a reward they look surprised and sad? Dogs are very emotional and can read human emotion. I can tell if my dog is happy, excited, bored, relaxed, angry, upset, scared, or confused. Similarly my dog can tell if someone likes them, doesn't like them, is sad, angry, and maybe other emotions.

frankzander 5y ago
maybe because a certain action differs from usual patterns. to me this is the most logical explanation.
- postalrat 5y ago
  People may assume an action is unintentional but they still check by looking at the person who made the action. Other social animals probably have the same behavior.
phire 5y ago
I think the evidence from the various studies along these lines is pointing towards dogs legitimately having empathy. And an empathy that is strongly compatible with humans. We aren't just talking about understanding feelings. Empathy includes the ability to see and understand a situation from another person's mental and physical point of view. Previous studies have shown that dogs can understand a human pointing at an object, and even mentally shift their perspective to understand what the human is pointing at from a completely different direction. The implication of this study is that dogs are genuinely putting themselves in the human's point of view and understanding that the result was not what the human intended and failed due to clumsiness.
hinkley 5y ago
Dogs understand apology as well. If you bonk them and then give them scratches they bounce back. If you bonk them and don’t they can get upset about it. It seems that puppy body language has built-in preemptive apologies. All that snout licking and booking is basically, “I’m sorry I’m a PITA but look how cute I am!”

frankzander 5y ago

maybe because a certain action differs from usual patterns. to me this is the most logical explanation.

postalrat 5y ago
People may assume an action is unintentional but they still check by looking at the person who made the action. Other social animals probably have the same behavior.

phire 5y ago

I think the evidence from the various studies along these lines is pointing towards dogs legitimately having empathy. And an empathy that is strongly compatible with humans. We aren't just talking about understanding feelings. Empathy includes the ability to see and understand a situation from another person's mental and physical point of view. Previous studies have shown that dogs can understand a human pointing at an object, and even mentally shift their perspective to understand what the human is pointing at from a completely different direction. The implication of this study is that dogs are genuinely putting themselves in the human's point of view and understanding that the result was not what the human intended and failed due to clumsiness.

hinkley 5y ago

Dogs understand apology as well. If you bonk them and then give them scratches they bounce back. If you bonk them and don’t they can get upset about it. It seems that puppy body language has built-in preemptive apologies. All that snout licking and booking is basically, “I’m sorry I’m a PITA but look how cute I am!”