By Amy Norton
HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, February 15 (HealthDay News)--ever think your dog knows exactly when you misbehave?
It may well be right, according to a study out of the United Kingdom.
Recent research has shown that dogs seem to understand that humans cannot see in the dark-you will take advantage of that fact to sneak a forbidden treat.
[Photo: the Westminster Dog Show 2013.]
For the study, researchers from the United Kingdom saw 84 dogs under different lighting conditions. In any case, the animals were in a room with one person and one piece attempted to they were commanded not to take food orally. The lighting conditions change so that the person was sometimes in the dark and sometimes lit. The same lighting changes were done with food.
In general, the researchers found, the dogs would try to snatch more food when the treatment has been obscured in darkness. But the animals did not change their behavior based on whether the person with them was illuminated or dark side of the room.
So dogs do not act solely on what you, yourself, might see.
"We believe that this may imply that dogs understand what they can and cannot see, humans," said lead researcher Juliane Kaminski, of the University of Portsmouth, England.
"The question [of] how come to this understanding is a very good," he added, "it will certainly be a subject for future research".
According to Kaminski, the findings, published recently in the journal Animal Cognition, add to evidence that "we share some of our cognitive skills with other species."
The traditional view of dogs and other animals-was that can learn from conditioning (like obeying commands) and that is all. But Kaminski said that this study combines other those in showing that canines can understand their environment, including other beings.
An animal behavior expert not involved in the research, agreed. The study showed that dogs seemed to grasp the human perspective of things, said Nicholas Dodman, a professor at Tufts Cummings School of veterinary medicine in North Grafton, mass.
Dodman "shows that the dog, when he considers that the owner cannot see it, it will become a thief in the night," he added.
And that involves a fairly sophisticated level of thought, he said.
A number of studies have suggested that animals have the so-called "primary emotions" like anger or joy. But those are relatively simple on the emotional scale. If animals have "secondary emotions"-more complicated feelings like guilt, jealousy and envy-is controversial.
Secondary emotions require a level of self-awareness and awareness of others that some believe are animal-free with primates like chimpanzees and baboons being the possible exception. But recent studies have been turning up evidence that dogs demonstrate complex emotions like jealousy.
"This study gives us another piece of evidence," says Dodman. "They appreciate themselves as entities; their thoughts and emotions. And it looks like they may have secondary emotions ".
Of course, people who live with a dog may not need convincing that, observed Dodman.
Other humans, however, can also be skeptical. Kaminski said that further research is needed to discover the extent to which dogs understand their environment and humans in it.
For its part, Dodman says that he doesn't think dogs sit around and think about existential questions. But they may have deeper thoughts that have traditionally been given credit for.
"That is inconvenient for some people," Dodman said. "We must admit that the animals are so much like us that some people want to believe."
More information
More information on canine behavior from the Humane Society.
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