To me there’s something incredibly satisfying about owning a dog.  I’ve had a dog in my life since I was two years old, and can hardly ever remember a time that I didn’t own a dog.   Dogs exemplify that unconditional love that we may or may not receive from human companions.  And we definitely know that they are glad to see us once we return home, and sometimes in my case, no matter what time it happens to be.  I am constantly amazed at how dogs relate to their owners and how they read their owners.   How some dogs can detect moods that their owners are in and adjust accordingly.

Which leads me to an article, I read in Time online yesterday that suggests that dogs could possible understand what we’re thinking or can see things from the human perspective.  In the article they used the example of dogs and humans being put in a room with a bowl full of snacks, and as long as the knew their owners could see their every move, they obeyed and didn’t steal snacks.  But, the minute the lights were turned off and the humans couldn’t see the dogs in the dark, the dogs sneaked and stole a snack.  As the article suggested, dogs adjusted their perspective to meet their human owners perspective, which led researchers to conclude that dogs may see things from the human’s point of view.

Well, I am not sure how I feel about this study yet, but I do know that my dogs will sneak and do stuff that they know I don’t like when I am not looking.   Sometimes for attention and sometimes just because they know it’s wrong.  The latter makes me believe that they see things from my perspective and want to try my patience when they can.    I am continuously fascinated by studies that conclude things that I am reading in my dogs everyday, that they truly understand what we say and how we feel.  And they adjust their emotions to support their owners.

Food for thought.