1
00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

2
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:10,479
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. If you're like me, you love dogs,

3
00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:14,240
Speaker 1: possibly more than people. Some days, their warm eyes and

4
00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:17,520
Speaker 1: doggie grins have me wrapped around their fluffy pupper tails,

5
00:00:18,040 --> 00:00:21,080
Speaker 1: and according to new research from the University of Portsmouth's

6
00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:25,560
Speaker 1: Dog Cognition Center, dogs deliberately make more facial expressions when

7
00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:28,040
Speaker 1: we're watching them, and it could be their way to

8
00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:31,320
Speaker 1: communicate with us. The study was led by Dr Julienne

9
00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:35,040
Speaker 1: Kaminsky and published in a twenty seventeen issue of Scientific Reports.

10
00:00:35,720 --> 00:00:38,680
Speaker 1: Kaminski and her research team came to their conclusion after

11
00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:42,160
Speaker 1: watching twenty four different dogs, all family pets of varying

12
00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,519
Speaker 1: breeds and ages. Each dog was filmed individually in a

13
00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:48,760
Speaker 1: room with a person who went through various scenarios, including

14
00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:51,239
Speaker 1: looking at the dog, looking away from the dog, and

15
00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:55,120
Speaker 1: giving the dog food. The scientists then studied the dog's

16
00:00:55,120 --> 00:00:58,800
Speaker 1: facial expressions using the Dog Facial Action Coding System or

17
00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:02,560
Speaker 1: Dog FACTS, which is a scientific tool for coding canines

18
00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:06,199
Speaker 1: facial movements. It was adapted from the FACTS system created

19
00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:10,400
Speaker 1: for humans back in night. Kaminsky and her team discovered

20
00:01:10,440 --> 00:01:13,200
Speaker 1: that each dog made animated faces when the person in

21
00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,119
Speaker 1: the room was looking at it, including raising its eyebrows

22
00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:18,600
Speaker 1: and sticking out its tongue a much more than when

23
00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:21,640
Speaker 1: the person's back was turned. In a press statement, Dr

24
00:01:21,720 --> 00:01:25,279
Speaker 1: Kaminsky said the findings appear to support evidence that dogs

25
00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,800
Speaker 1: are sensitive to humans attention and that expressions are potentially

26
00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:34,520
Speaker 1: active attempts to communicate, not simple emotional displays. Most surprisingly

27
00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,600
Speaker 1: is that even the presence of food didn't influence the

28
00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:41,280
Speaker 1: dogs as much as human affection. Kaminski said, we knew

29
00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:44,160
Speaker 1: domestic dogs paid attention to how attentive a human is.

30
00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,080
Speaker 1: In a previous study, we found, for example, the dogs

31
00:01:47,080 --> 00:01:49,720
Speaker 1: stole food more often when the human's eyes were closed

32
00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,520
Speaker 1: or when they had their back turned. In another study,

33
00:01:52,760 --> 00:01:54,920
Speaker 1: we found dogs follow the gaze of a human if

34
00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:58,080
Speaker 1: the human first establishes eye contact with the dog, so

35
00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,880
Speaker 1: the dog knows that the gaze shift is erected at them.

36
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:04,880
Speaker 1: Kabinski says it's possible that the expressions of dogs have

37
00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:08,840
Speaker 1: changed as they've become more domesticated, but the study does

38
00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:11,800
Speaker 1: have its limits. Twenty four canines makes for a small

39
00:02:11,840 --> 00:02:14,760
Speaker 1: study sample, so it's likely that more dogs should be

40
00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,160
Speaker 1: studied to confirm these findings, which sounds like an excellent

41
00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:26,000
Speaker 1: research session to me. Today's episode was written by Sarah

42
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,680
Speaker 1: Glime and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this

43
00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:31,760
Speaker 1: and lots of other tail wagging topics, visit our home planet,

44
00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:44,520
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com