Dogs Can Sense Anger In their Owners, New Study Suggests

Researchers at the University of Helsinki have discovered that dogs limit eye contact with angry owners.

During a recent study, the researchers trained 31 dogs to rest in front of a video screen, according to The Washington Post. They displayed a variety of different types of facial features as the dogs rested, ranging from threatening and pleasant to neutral expressions. All were played on the screen for 1.5 seconds as nearby cameras helped to track the dogs eye movements.

"The tolerant behavior strategy of dogs toward humans may partially explain the results. Domestication may have equipped dogs with a sensitivity to detect the threat signals of humans and respond to them with pronounced appeasement signals," said researcher Sanni Somppi, via Health Day. 

Researchers found that when dogs looked at human faces, their eyes scanned the entire face instead of just a certain area; this type of eye movevement suggests that the animals are working to interpret emotion. However, when the dogs looked at threatening faces of other dogs, they focused more on the mouth--which suggests that the dogs are watching out for a potential threat. 

The study is published in the journal Plos One.

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