Considered as sentient beings and not as objects by the Civil Code since only January 30, 2020, dogs are increasingly recognized as beings endowed with intelligence. A new German study, published this Wednesday, September 1, thus confirms that they are able to understand whether a human action is deliberate or not.
Based on the analysis of video recordings of 51 dogs, the results provided by the study tend to show that the canine breed is endowed with an intelligence allowing it to detect the intentionality of an action. An attitude that allows dogs to get closer to species such as horses, chimpanzees and African gray parrots.
“Our results provide important initial evidence that dogs may have at least one aspect of theory of mind: the ability to recognize intention in action,” say the study’s authors, published in the journal Scientific Reports, echoed by The Guardian.
A conclusive experiment with sweets
To back up this finding, the scientists performed a simple test under three conditions with treats: the first where the human accidentally drops the candy, the second where it offers it to the dog, and the last where the human pretends to be eating it. give to the animal before changing at the last moment.
The result is screaming: the dog takes longer to retrieve the treat in the third situation, indicating that he has understood the process of intentionality of the human being offering him the treat. The animal was also more likely to stop wagging its tail, a sign of its contentment, or even to sit or lie down, indicating that it understood the final withdrawal.
If other tests must be carried out to confirm this discovery, this thesis, which seems minor, ultimately sheds light on the scientific cause since it makes it possible to make the link between understanding of animals and human intentionality.