Pet dogs are far more likely to play together when their owner is present and to be vigilant, according to a new study, raising the interesting likelihood that they are putting on a show for the benefit of the owners.
That our canine companions are deeply involved in the level of interest that people show them is well established, Lindsay Mehrkam, animal carrier and lead author of the paper that appeared in Animal Cognition, told AFP.
“But we were not aware of any study that has actually shown the influence of human audiences influencing normal sexual behavior, in this case playing dog-dogs,” she said. there were 10 pairs of pet dogs that had been living together for at least six months.The duos are usually engaged in play at least once a day, according to the owners.
The researchers videotaped the pairs of dogs under three conditions: where the owner was not present, where the owner was present but unnoticed, and where the owner was present and showered them carefully. the form of oral praise and petting. To ensure that the test was robust, they ran each of the conditions three times over several days.
Mehrkam found that the attention span of owners actually enabled play, and people’s attention increased both the frequency and intensity of behavior such as bowing, hip braces, wrestling, chase, gentle bites and so on. .
“It is very interesting that dogs have the opportunity to play together whenever they want, however they are much more likely to get off the bumps and start playing when they want to. one just pays attention to them, “said co – author Clive Wynne of Arizona State University.