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Study: Dogs show empathy to crying people
upi ^ | June 8, 2012

Posted on 06/18/2012 7:20:06 AM PDT by JoeProBono

LONDON, - Dogs respond to a person who is crying regardless of whether it is their owner or an unfamiliar person, researchers in Britain found.

Dr. Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer, both of the Department of Psychology at the University of London, developed a procedure to examine whether domestic dogs could identify and respond to emotional states in humans.

Eighteen pet dogs -- a range of ages and breeds -- were exposed to four separate 20-second experimental conditions in which either the dog's owner or an unfamiliar person pretended to cry, hummed in an odd manner, or carried out a casual conversation.

More dogs looked at, approached and touched the humans as they were crying as opposed to humming, and no dogs responded to those talking, Custance said.

The study, published in the journal Animal Cognition, found a majority of dogs in the study responded to the crying person in a submissive manner consistent with empathic concern and comfort-offering.

"If the dogs' approaches during the crying condition were motivated by self-oriented comfort-seeking, they would be more likely to approach their usual source of comfort, their owner, rather than the stranger," Mayer said in a statement. "No such preference was found. The dogs approached whoever was crying regardless of their identity. Thus they were responding to the person's emotion, not their own needs, which is suggestive of empathic-like comfort-offering behavior."


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: dog
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To: JoeProBono
Was in a customer's home a few years back. Had a fresh laceration on my leg. Client's dog started licking the wound through my pants.

Client was embarrassed. I knew the dog was trying to help heal me.

Both the dog and me are still okay.

21 posted on 06/18/2012 8:34:39 AM PDT by Focault's Pendulum (If Obama was any more thin skinned, he'd have a receptacle end: Dennis Miller)
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To: JoeProBono
I had a big, long haired cat that avoided everyone except me. However, if a child was crying he would run up to them and try to comfort them.
22 posted on 06/18/2012 8:38:37 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse
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To: Focault's Pendulum

23 posted on 06/18/2012 8:40:35 AM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: JoeProBono

Of course they do. Dogs are very emotional creatures. They don’t have a whole hell of a lot of executive control, i.e. reasoning ability (though they do very well with what they do have), but their emotional empathy skills are top-notch. I believe you’d find that cats respond too, though their comforting skills are not as well developed as dogs.


24 posted on 06/18/2012 8:47:58 AM PDT by ichabod1 (Cheney/Rumsfeld 2012)
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To: JoeProBono

Dogs have enormous empathy. When my mom was dying (my parents lived with us in their later years), one of my dogs laid beside her on the bed constantly the last few weeks of her life. He only left to “do his business” and eat. When Mom died, Willy kept putting his head under her hand trying to make her pet him. It was so terribly sad, but also moving.

After Mom died, Willy and his sister sat in the recliner with my dad all day long...one on each side of him so he could pet each of them at the same time!

When my husband died, those same dogs stayed beside me all the time, following me around constantly, comforting me and getting me through it. Frankly, I don’t know if I would have made it if it weren’t for my dogs!


25 posted on 06/18/2012 8:58:28 AM PDT by MomofMarine
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To: JoeProBono

26 posted on 06/18/2012 8:58:50 AM PDT by servo1969
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To: JoeProBono

we dog lovers already knew the answer before they did their study! Love the picture—we have a lab mix and she is definitely my second shadow. Knows when I’m sad, knows when I’m sick...such a sweet companion. We’ve had cats and horses, too—my daughter often found comfort from her horse when she was crying: she’d cry into his neck and he’d nuzzle her and get very protective of her. Recently we had to sell him (broke ALL of our hearts) and I thought my tears would not ever stop. She is beside herself with sadness, but thank goodness she has a mission trip coming up and can focus on someone else and not her broken heart. She, too, is a BIG animal lover, and plans to be a vet...


27 posted on 06/18/2012 9:04:25 AM PDT by sassy steel magnolia (USAF life and Navy wife...God Bless the USA!)
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To: JoeProBono; Slings and Arrows

"I notice you'se upset!... Are you gonna eat that?!!"

28 posted on 06/18/2012 9:43:35 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (The media ignored the 40th anniversary of Bill Ayers' Pentagon bombing but not Watergate. Ask Why.)
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To: JoeProBono; Revolting cat!

29 posted on 06/18/2012 9:44:28 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (The media ignored the 40th anniversary of Bill Ayers' Pentagon bombing but not Watergate. Ask Why.)
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To: JoeProBono

Dogs experience a wide range of human-like feelings. They know family and home, sadness, joy, play, teasing, protectiveness, shame, etc... It's a lot of work to raise a dog to be a really good dog, but once all of that work is done, a dog returns your effort a hundred times over.

30 posted on 06/18/2012 10:52:50 AM PDT by MarineBrat (Better dead than red!)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Ping!


31 posted on 06/18/2012 11:33:10 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: MarineBrat

32 posted on 06/18/2012 4:14:28 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: JoeProBono; a fool in paradise; Slings and Arrows

Yeah, first they chew up your precious priceless stock certificates of Facebook, and then, when you cry over your lost fortune, they show empathy!


33 posted on 06/18/2012 4:30:52 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong!)
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To: JoeProBono

I had a monstrous yellow lab in the past. He loved to play dodge with me. One time, he ran directly into my legs and planted me face down. Despite all the action and excitement, he immediately came over to me very gently and licked me and waited for me to get up. He had a very guilty look on his face.


34 posted on 06/18/2012 4:41:51 PM PDT by johniegrad
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To: JoeProBono

Doggies haz teh friendlies.


35 posted on 06/18/2012 4:47:18 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: JoeProBono

Very sweet. I had a cat once who did the same for me. Rest in peace my surrogate Mommy and Daddy-T man. That cat raised me through my twenties and made me grow up. I am so blessed to have had such a companion. RIP baby and all the other special pets. I often pray for all pets to be comforted especially the ones alone or abused.


36 posted on 06/18/2012 4:53:18 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: JoeProBono

Dogs and Cats are angels on earth in my opinion even though I am sort of sure my religion would not agree except for St. Francis of course :-). I’m sticking to it anyway.


37 posted on 06/18/2012 4:54:58 PM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: GOP Poet

38 posted on 06/18/2012 5:42:44 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: Revolting cat!

39 posted on 06/18/2012 6:11:09 PM PDT by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas exercitus gerit ;-{)
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To: AnAmericanMother; Titan Magroyne; Badeye; SandRat; arbooz; potlatch; afraidfortherepublic; ...
WOOOF!

The Doggie Ping list is for FReepers who would like to be notified of threads relating to all things canid. If you would like to join the Doggie Ping Pack (or be unleashed from it), FReemail me.

40 posted on 06/18/2012 6:18:16 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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