The authors write Royal Society journal Open Science: 'Our findings reveal that rapid mimicry occurs not only in humans and other primate species but also in dogs under the playful context.' The mimicry – which would happen within a second of the other dog displaying it - happened more often when the dogs were well known to each other. The two behaviours studied were a 'play bow' – bowing down, with front legs outstretched and 'relaxed open mouth' – which Dr Palagi said means 'I'm in a positive mood, I'd like to continue playing'. In tests of two key playful behaviours, dogs were found to rapidly copy each other. The owners of the dogs were interviewed as to how well the dogs knew the dogs they were playing with – whether friends, acquaintance, or strangers, and the dogs were observed as they socialised. In research carried out in a park in Palermo, Italy the researchers recorded 49 dogs engaged in play. Now researchers led by Elisabetta Palagi, of the University of Pisa have found that dogs possess a key 'building-block of empathy' - being able to mimic emotional behaviour in other dogs. In humans, it has been shown that when experiencing empathy, humans tend to mirror or mimic the emotional expression of the person they are engaging with. It is because they are able to rapidly mimic or 'catch' emotions, research suggests. Scientists believe they have unravelled just how dogs seem able to show empathy. The average human sleeps about seven to eight hours per day, but an adult dog sleeps anywhere from 12 to 14 hours per day – about 50 per cent of a dog's day is sleep. Puppies spend a much greater proportion of their sleep time than adult dogs in REM sleep.Īdult dogs spend about 10-12 per cent of their sleeping time in REM sleep. Small dogs dream more frequently and have shorter dreams and larger dogs dream less but have longer dreams
Studies have shown how much and how long a dog dreams depends on its size.įor a typical medium sized dog, their breathing is fairly regular and somewhere around 20 minutes into the sleep cycle, you can see the eyes moving around the closed lids and their breathing will become irregular. 'It’s a good bet this is also best for pets’ dreams. 'The best way to give ourselves or our children better dreams is to have happy daytime experiences and to get plenty of sleep in a safe and comfortable environment,' she said. If dogs have bad dreams, they could be unhappy about something, Dr Barrett said. When a dog moves its legs it is likely to be running in its dreams - chasing a ball, running towards a rabbit or fetching a stick. 'They looked like they were hunting mice in their dreams.' 'Cats lay quietly through the other stages of sleep, and when REM began, they leapt up, stalked, pounced, arched their backs and hissed,' she said. Researchers confirm dogs and cats experience the same thing. The 'basic maker that indicates dreaming' in humans is the motion of rapid eye movement (REM), which is when an individual's eyes begin moving around inside their closed eye lids.
In contrast, cats are more likely to dream of catching mice, Dr Barrett said. 'Since dogs are generally extremely attached to their human owners, it’s likely your dog is dreaming of your face, your smell and of pleasing or annoying you,' she said. Dr Deirdre Barrett, a clinical and evolutionary psychologist at Harvard Medical School, told People that dogs are likely to dream about what happened to them during the day - much like humans.
0 kommentar(er)
