Fido's Not Just Yawning -- He's Empathizing

[Dover]

LONDON (Reuters) - Dogs find human yawns contagious, suggesting they have a rudimentary capacity for empathy, British scientists said on Wednesday.

Although yawning is widespread in many animals, contagious yawning -- a yawn triggered by seeing others yawning -- has previously only been shown to occur in humans and chimpanzees.

It turns out, however, that man's best friend is highly sensitive to catching human yawns, with 72 percent of 29 dogs tested yawning after observing a person doing so...cont'd

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=5521762



I also think cats and dogs yawn to communicate they don't have any fear...or that they aren't
dangerous to other animals or humans.


My dog and I play 'made ya blink'. I'll blink, then him, and the game will go on for a minute or two before he loses interest.

[Longhorn]

1. Wow! I have three dogs on the bed with me and I just yawned

and within ten seconds, one of them also yawned! I'd never noticed that before! :hi:

[BrklynLiberal]

2. My dog will yawn with me...and I have several cats who will blink back and forth with me.

[Eurobabe]

3. Anyone who has a cat or dog already knows this...

How many times have you every been laying on the couch sick, and your pet is right there next to you? It's instinctual. :loveya: :loveya:

[elleng]

4. Right-o, 48!

I think 'suggesting they have a rudimentary capacity for empathy' is somehow insulting to our pets, and to all of us who've understood something about this bond for ages.

[roody]

5. Or sad and crying.

[sazemisery]

6. When humans quit believing that we have dominion over

the Earth and its' inhabitants, then we will realize that other species are not "DUMB".

Humans are so full of themselves. We were given the role of stewards of the planet and we have screwn the job royally.

[Muttocracy]

7. Yawning is definitely a "calming signal" in dogs.

Turid Rugaas (sp?) has a great video about that. When two dogs are having conflict or really excited and they want to calm it down, sometimes one or both of them will yawn. I've seen my dogs do that to me and to each other and especially to dogs outside of our pack. I've seen dogs do it a shelters and at training classes. It seems to be a signal to others or part of calming themselves down. There are other calming signals I see more often - licking lips, body curves in dogs who are meeting, facing away to avoid conflict, etc. There are a few things in the video that I don't quite see that she says are there (she goes a little overboard with yawning IMHO - sometimes it's just a tired or waking up yawn) but it's very interesting.

Here is is:
http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB527