He's not counter-cruising, he's communicatn'

Those animal psychologists are at it again.  The Science section of today's New York Times tells of one such luminary, a former Emory student and now a Duke University associate professor, who investigates how dogs and humans signaled one another.  Evidently, humans and chimps don't communicate very well.  It's nearly impossible to help a chimp find a banana by pointing at it, and yet humans and dogs interact in this way all the time.

The researcher, Brian Hare developed some tests to determine how dogs learn to understand the intentions of their handlers.

Anyone who has watched a handler with a retriever understands how the dog will respond to the semaphoric commands.  A spaniel in the field will steal a quick look at his handler to understand what portion of the field to cover.

Does your dog yawn when you do?  That's one empathetic clue of a close bond.  According to Dr. Hare, there is a surprising, to him, link between empathy in dogs and deception:

The dogs that are most bonded to their owners turn out to be most likely to steal food.  'I would not have that to test for that relationship at Duke, but with Dognition we can see it.'   

Brian Hare communicating with his dog.  (Courtesy of the NYT 4/23/13, p. D3.)