--- 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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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=0f70c1b5-cd11-4dd1-b1e5-cd78c6c78b82&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## 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. \[[_AFP_](http://news.yahoo.com/dogs-snub-people-mean-owners-study-053213855.html)\] ## Transcript >> Henry. >> Henry. >> Henry. >> Henry. >> Okay. The mission of the Duke Canine Cognition Center-- >> One, two, three, go. >> is to understand dog Psychology in a way that people really haven't been looking at dogs until very recently. Dogs have shared an evolutionary history with us over the last 10, 000 or 15, 000 years at least. They solve problems more like we do, in many cases, more like we do than our closest relatives, Chimpanzees and Bonobos. We wanna study people's pets because there's no dog on the planet that's more sophisticated than a dog that has to manipulate or understand what its owner wishes, and what its owner is trying to get it to do. >> Henry. >> One of the games that we are presenting is a very simple game to try to understand how dogs understand our gestural communication. >> Here we go. Good job, Henry. >> The question is how do dogs understand that information and how do they use it? We wanna understand what, is the effect of domestication on dog psychology. >> We'll let them meet and then we could know, and then maybe he'll calm down. >> Hello. This is Bruno. >> Why is it that some breeds solve problems differently than others? >> Where is it? I don't have it. >> Since he's doing so good we're just gonna use his gaze or which cup he's standing closest to as his choice. >> The goal of all the research is really to understand what is it about our species that is so unique or different? >> Bruno! [ unk ] or dad? Boy, this is crazy business you're making me do. He's like, why don't you just give me the food? Bruno! Okay bye, Bruno. >> Bye, Bruno! >> Bye! Thanks for coming! Here you go-- one more for the road, Bruno, one more for the road. There you go big guy. 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