It seems a dog really is man’s best friend.
Researchers have found the pet pooches can recognise our emotions by combining information from different senses.
A team of animal behaviour experts and psychologists have carried out a study that shows dogs form abstract mental representations of positive and negative emotions, rather than just displaying learned behaviours.
They are the only creatures, other than humans, known to have that ability.
Seventeen dogs in the experiment were shown two pictures - one of a happy person, and one of an angry person. They were then played sounds of a person’s voice in either a happy or angry tone.
The scientists found the dogs almost always looked at the picture that matched the tone of voice. The animals also did the same for pictures and sounds of other dogs.
Dr Kun Guo from the University of Lincoln’s School of Psychology said “Our study shows that dogs have the ability to integrate two different sources of sensory information into a coherent perception of emotion in both humans and dogs."
Co-author Professor Daniel Mills, from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln, said "Our findings are the first to show that dogs truly recognise emotions in humans and other dogs."
An earlier study, in 2010, found that dogs are cleverer than cats 'because their friendly character has helped them develop bigger brains'.
