It turns out dogs can lie. According to a study published in Animal Cognition, canines are capable of “tactical deception” and can adjust their behaviour to work in their favour.
The authors – Marianne Heberlein, Dennis Turner and Marta Manser of the University of Zürich – conducted a study with dogs, pairing them up with a “cooperative” human who would offer them treats and a “competitive” one who would withhold them. The study involved three boxes of treats – one containing a sausage, the second a biscuit, while the third was empty.
During the course of the experiment, the researchers found that the dogs would lead the cooperative human to the box with the sausage, their preferred treat, and the competitive human to the empty box. As the canines continued with this, the researchers concluded that the dogs knew when they had a higher chance of being fed a treat and tricked the humans accordingly.
Several recent studies have provided insight into the intelligence of dogs. A study conducted by Hungarian scientists last year proved that dogs can process speech and can understand both words and tone like humans.
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