Dogs may be able to understand our intentions, according to a study of how they reacted when denied food on purpose or inadvertently.
Researchers either withheld treats or fumbled and dropped them. The dogs seemed to know when the researchers were just being “clumsy” and when they were being “mean”.
The team, from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, used the so-called unwilling-unable paradigm to study 96 dogs of various breeds and ages. It measures whether an animal is sensitive to human intentions, for example whether they are unwilling, or simply unable, to do something.
An experimenter sat inside a transparent box that had holes in the front panel, separating them from the dog. When the dog approached, the experimenter attempted to feed them a
