Dogs have developed a range of skills to coexist with humans. One of them is the ability to understand human action. For example, if you say "sit" or "down," many dogs will listen to you. However, researchers went a step further in a new study and asked themselves: do dogs actually understand human intentions?

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This ability to recognize - or at least visualize - another person's intentions is a fundamental component of the so-called Theory of Mind. Theory of mind is a popular term in psychology, and it describes how well a person is capable of empathy and understanding another persons' perspective.

For a long time, the Theory of Mind had been regarded as something unique to humans. But in their new study, researchers took this into question a step further. Many people who have experience with dogs may have encountered an occasion where it appears that the dog seems to understand you. Consequently, the researchers wanted to find out if dogs can detect the difference between something that happens on purpose and something that happens by chance?

The experiment

The experiment involved 51 dogs of various breeds and ages ranging from 1 to 15 years. The researchers only tested dogs who had not received special training (like police dogs or rescue dogs, for example)

Each of the dogs was examined under three different circumstances. A transparent barrier separated the dog from the human tester in each circumstance. The basic situation was that the experimenter fed the dog pieces of dog food through a gap in the barrier.

In the "unwilling" situation, the researcher abruptly withdrew the reward through the gap in the barrier and placed it in front of herself.

In the "unable-clumsy" situation, the researcher brought the reward to the gap in the barrier and "tried" to pass it through the gap but then "accidentally" dropped it.

In the "unable-blocked" situation, the researcher again tried to give the dog a reward but was unable to because the gap in the barrier was blocked.

In all situations, the reward remained on the tester's side of the barrier.

Dr. Juliane Bräuer, one of the researchers, stated that if dogs can assign intention-in-action to people, the researchers would expect them to respond differently in the unwilling situation than in the two incapable situations. As it turns out, this is precisely what the team observed.

The researchers paid particular attention to how long dogs waited before approaching the reward they were denied. The prediction was that if dogs are able to understand human intentions, they would hesitate longer in the unwilling state (where they do not receive the reward) than in the other two incapacitated cases (in which the reward is intended for them).

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The results are striking. Not only did the dogs hesitate longer during the unwilling situation, but they were also more likely to sit or lie down, something that is seen as appeasing behavior. Eleven dogs also stopped wagging their tails during the unwilling situation.

The researchers were surprised at the reaction of some dogs. Several dogs immediately sat down, as if they immediately resigned themselves to the fact that they would never get those tasty dog kibbles."

Although further research is needed, the paper brings forward interesting initial evidence that dogs might have at least one feature of theory of mind: the capacity to recognize intention-in-action.

If you are interested in more details about the research, be sure to check out the paper published in Nature Scientific Reports, listed below.

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