Do you ever notice that when you yawn, those who are around you tend to yawn as well? And vice versa? Well that contagious expression even crosses the species barrier, as dogs are also capable of catching yawns from humans.
But why dogs catch our yawns has been a mystery, until now. A new study has found that dogs yawn even when they only hear the sound of us yawning, the strongest evidence yet that our canine companions may be able to understand us.
The study, presented at the National Ethology Congress in Lisbon, and to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Animal Cognition, found that nearly half of all dogs yawned when played a recording of a human being making such a noise.
Source: Lawrence LeBlond