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Ever Wonder How Much Your Dogs Watch What You Do ?


Marion 01
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Went to our daughters place this morning for her 42nd birthday morning tea. As usual we shut the two youngsters in the bathroom (big area) and put the toilet lid down and they are happy with this arrangement. The oldies have the run of the house when we are out. So came home let everyone out, came back into the bathroom to wash my hands and looked at the toilet lid which was still down, and there was a yellow puddle in the middle of it, one of the youngsters must have got caught short and knew where to go, but the lid was down. Just goes to show, they don't miss too much, wonder if they would like the job of picking the winning lotto numbers for us.

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Funny you should mention dogs watching us.

Tonight while having dinner & being watched intently as every forkful went into my mouth by 5 dogs I wondered how they would feel if I sat on the floor in the morning & gazed intently at their mouths as they ate :laugh:

Dogs are clever.

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An interesting study done this year..... 15 pet dogs and their handler used in this study.

A fenced yard with nothing in it except a plastic witches hat at one end (no dogs had been into this area) - at the other end is a pole with a screen set up so no vision to what is happening behind.... owner walks in with their dog and ties the dog up to the pole..... owner then walks over and plays with the cone for a few minutes. Owner then leaves the witches hat and collects dog and leaves the area and takes a walk.

20 minutes later the dog is brought back to the enclosure and a second person takes the dog into the yard and stands at the pole.... handler then lets the dog off the lead and says "go play" (or something of that nature) and then ignores the dog...

Surprisingly within a few minutes - the dog goes and plays with the cone...

Same thing happened with 12 other dogs.... remember they had not seen this action before and where not given any instructions by the owner and the handler just really released.... just goes to show that the majority of the dogs are likely to learn just by watching....

There was also another study (Fugazza & Miklosi- Eotvos Lorand University) which worked on similar responses but the dogs were taught to wait and watch - very similar results.....

Interesting thought....

Edited by alpha bet
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Great to hear all the different stories. Dogs obviously observe more than we give them credit for. Mine also know when we are going out if I put different shoes on, but most of all if I put a bra on, then they really start cracking up.

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An interesting study done this year..... 15 pet dogs and their handler used in this study.

A fenced yard with nothing in it except a plastic witches hat at one end (no dogs had been into this area) - at the other end is a pole with a screen set up so no vision to what is happening behind.... owner walks in with their dog and ties the dog up to the pole..... owner then walks over and plays with the cone for a few minutes. Owner then leaves the witches hat and collects dog and leaves the area and takes a walk.

20 minutes later the dog is brought back to the enclosure and a second person takes the dog into the yard and stands at the pole.... handler then lets the dog off the lead and says "go play" (or something of that nature) and then ignores the dog...

Surprisingly within a few minutes - the dog goes and plays with the cone...

Same thing happened with 12 other dogs.... remember they had not seen this action before and where not given any instructions by the owner and the handler just really released.... just goes to show that the majority of the dogs are likely to learn just by watching....

There was also another study (Fugazza & Miklosi- Eotvos Lorand University) which worked on similar responses but the dogs were taught to wait and watch - very similar results.....

Interesting thought....

I'm not sure how much you could gain from that scenario? I do not find those dogs' actions at all surprising.

If the only thing in the yard is the witches hat what else are they going to play with?

Also it has their owner's scent all over it so of course they are going to check it out...was there more info that wasn't stated here? Were the owners instructed to play with the witches hat in a certain manner that the dogs later copied or something?

The two dogs that didn't check out the witches hat did they do something else or nothing at all? I would actually be more interested in those two dogs that didn't check out the only thing in the yard, especially as it had their owner's scent all over it. I would be wondering why they didn't act as I would expect a normal dog to act.

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I would be wondering why they didn't act as I would expect a normal dog to act.

Probably because they are just like my dogs, who'd just go "hmmm, a big yard with nothing in it but a dumb uninteresting witches hat, I'll just lie on my back in the sun"

Edited by kelpiecuddles
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Stan would've been one of the dogs that did nothing at all. In fact you would have to set up the witches hat in the loungeroom if you wanted him to partake in that exercise and even then I doubt he'd get off the lounge.

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