1
00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

2
00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:09,360
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren vog Obam here with another classic episode

3
00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,160
Speaker 1: from our former host, Christian Sager. This one is about

4
00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:14,600
Speaker 1: one of my favorite topics that's something of a mystery

5
00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:24,599
Speaker 1: to science, dog psychology, and more specifically, social yawning. Hey

6
00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,560
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, it's Christian Sager. I've got to come clean.

7
00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:31,960
Speaker 1: I like dogs. In fact, I own to my dog, Winchester,

8
00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:34,480
Speaker 1: does this thing whenever I get home from work, where

9
00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:37,960
Speaker 1: he's super excited and he's jumping around all happy, and

10
00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:40,800
Speaker 1: then he starts yawning for some reason. I don't know.

11
00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:43,280
Speaker 1: Maybe he's just tired, or maybe he's waking up. I

12
00:00:43,320 --> 00:00:46,519
Speaker 1: don't know, but he seems pretty delighted. And yawning is

13
00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:49,960
Speaker 1: one of the primary ways dogs communicate in their whole

14
00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,720
Speaker 1: complicated system of subtle body language. It could mean several things.

15
00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:57,880
Speaker 1: Did you know that yawning is actually the first expression

16
00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,640
Speaker 1: dogs learn to use when they're tiny puppies, So it

17
00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,520
Speaker 1: has multiple meanings depending on the situation a dog is in.

18
00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:09,840
Speaker 1: Dogs usually yawn when they want to send a pacifying

19
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:14,240
Speaker 1: or calming signal out to other dogs or people, like, Hey, everybody,

20
00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:18,160
Speaker 1: let's take a breather and just chill out. Okay. Yawns

21
00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:22,320
Speaker 1: have no element of fear or aggression for dogs. It's

22
00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,880
Speaker 1: like the exact opposite of a threat. So imagine this.

23
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:28,440
Speaker 1: You're in a fistfight and all you have to do

24
00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:33,080
Speaker 1: is just be like, yeawn, nothing dangerous or intimidating here,

25
00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,880
Speaker 1: just I'm I'm like bored. But wait, why would my

26
00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:41,440
Speaker 1: dog do that to me? Okay? Sometimes dogs yawn when

27
00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:45,000
Speaker 1: they're getting obedience training. If a dog is frustrated, he

28
00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,440
Speaker 1: might be asking you to give him a little break,

29
00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:50,280
Speaker 1: That is, if he sees you as the dominant one

30
00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:53,640
Speaker 1: in your relationship. It could also mean that your dog

31
00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,200
Speaker 1: might be just cooling off his brain. There's a veterinary

32
00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:00,560
Speaker 1: behaviorist at you See Davis that thinks dog brains get

33
00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:05,760
Speaker 1: hot during periods of inactivity. Dog brains get warm because

34
00:02:05,880 --> 00:02:11,320
Speaker 1: their circulation slows down, so yawning supposedly cools the arterial

35
00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:16,080
Speaker 1: blood down, helping the dog's brain function. There's one other

36
00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,920
Speaker 1: thing that yawning and dogs might mean. Dogs also yawn

37
00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:24,320
Speaker 1: when they're dealing with anxiety or uncertainty, and this includes

38
00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:28,280
Speaker 1: being excited. So maybe my dog is just trying to

39
00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:32,640
Speaker 1: control his enthusiasm. And Oh also, dogs yawn when they're

40
00:02:32,680 --> 00:02:36,320
Speaker 1: nervous too, Like in a VETS office. Do you yawn

41
00:02:36,360 --> 00:02:40,320
Speaker 1: when you're nervous? Check this out. Dogs can also catch

42
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,919
Speaker 1: yawning from the human beings around them. You know how

43
00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:46,520
Speaker 1: if you yawn, then other people in the room around

44
00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:49,480
Speaker 1: you often start yawning. Well, that often has to do

45
00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,880
Speaker 1: with a person's capacity for empathy, you know, feeling what

46
00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:57,160
Speaker 1: somebody else feels. Well, there was a study about this

47
00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,480
Speaker 1: that was published in a journal called Biology Letters in

48
00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:03,799
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight, and they said twenty one out

49
00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:08,080
Speaker 1: of twenty nine dogs yawned at least once in response

50
00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:11,560
Speaker 1: to the yawn of an assistant in the room with them.

51
00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,640
Speaker 1: Human to dog yawn contagion. It sounds like the beginning

52
00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:19,120
Speaker 1: of a zombie movie where everyone just yawned at each other.

53
00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,200
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Christian and produced by Tyler Clang.

54
00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:30,000
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works.

55
00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:32,040
Speaker 1: For more in this and lots of other catchy topics,

56
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:34,680
Speaker 1: visit our home planet how stuff Works dot com and

57
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:37,120
Speaker 1: for more podcasts. For my heart Radio, visit the iHeart

58
00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:39,880
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

59
00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:40,560
Speaker 1: favorite shows,