--- title: Dogs Know How Owners Are Treated: New Study description: New research out of Japan suggests dogs cooperate socially canonical: https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-13T16:14:35.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:55.568Z article:section: Science og:title: Dogs Can Tell When You're Not Nice to Their Owners, Study Finds og:description: New research out of Japan suggests dogs cooperate socially og:url: https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dogs Can Tell When You're Not Nice to Their Owners, Study Finds twitter:description: New research out of Japan suggests dogs cooperate socially twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Dogs Can Tell When You're Not Nice to Their Owners, Study Finds > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Inside the Canine Mind [Watch (HLS stream): Inside the Canine Mind](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dTemQHb7.m3u8) (2:08)  _Published 2009-09-11. Professor Brian Hare at Duke University studies people's pet dogs to understand how canines think_  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 13, 2015 4:14 PM UTC  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jun 13, 2015 4:14 PM UTC Scientists are learning more and more about why dogs are man’s best friend, and a new study suggests they can tell when people aren’t being kind to their owners. Japanese researchers conducted an experiment where three groups of 18 dogs each watched their owners interact with two other strangers and try and open a box, [AFP reports](http://news.yahoo.com/dogs-snub-people-mean-owners-study-053213855.html). In the first group, the owner asked for help from one of the people and was refused. In the second group, the owner asked for help and received it from one person. And in the third group, both people were neutral and neither helped nor refused. Afterwards, the two people accompanying the owner offered the dog food. Researchers said the dogs were more likely to choose food from the neutral participant and ignore the person who refused to help in the first group. “We discovered for the first time that dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people regardless of their direct interest,” said lead researcher Kazuo Fujita, a professor of comparative cognition at Kyoto University. The dogs showed no preference for accepting food in the other scenarios, according to the study, set to be published in the journal _Animal Behaviour_. That the dogs don’t always act out of immediate self interest is evidence of their ability to cooperate socially, a trait found in a few species, Fujita said. “There is a similar study that showed tufted capuchins have this ability, but there is no evidence that chimpanzees demonstrate a preference unless there is a direct benefit to them,” he said. \[[_AFP_](http://news.yahoo.com/dogs-snub-people-mean-owners-study-053213855.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/"},"headline":"Dogs Can Tell When You're Not Nice to Their Owners, Study Finds","datePublished":"2015-06-13T16:14:35.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:55.568Z","description":"New research out of Japan suggests dogs cooperate socially","url":"https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/","keywords":["animals","Dogs"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/animals/","name":"animals"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/","name":"Dogs Can Tell When You're Not Nice to Their Owners, Study Finds"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Inside the Canine Mind","description":"Professor Brian Hare at Duke University studies people's pet dogs to understand how canines think","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dTemQHb7/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-09-11T01:23:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dTemQHb7.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/","duration":"PT2M8S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```