History Behind Dogs Sensing Good and Bad
We learned over the years through the study of canine behavior that dogs are extremely adept at sensing certain things about people. In fact, the tone and body language that a person uses are amongst the main ways in which a dog can tell what mood the person is in or what a person is like.
Dogs clearly don’t pull any punches either when it comes to someone they don’t like. Whereas we humans may pretend to get along with someone even though we don’t really like them, your pooch will make it obvious that it does not like the person through the way in which it behaves and reacts to them.
Sometimes, it may be that your dog senses that the person is not keen on dogs even if the person in question is trying to act nicely toward your pet. Dogs and cats are very adept at determining whether the person they are with is a dog or cat person and if they are not, the animal often loses interest. However, if a person is ‘bad’ in a different sense, this is something that can come across in the way they act and speak – even though they may not realize it and other humans may not pick up on it.
Signs Your Dog Knows if Someone is Good or Bad
A dog can pick up on whether a person is good or bad through a number of means including their tone and their body language. These are not things that we would necessarily notice, but dogs are extremely sensitive to this sort of thing. This is often why dogs can take an instant dislike to someone or even be fearful of them as soon as they meet them. By looking at the signs your dog displays, you may be able to determine whether it thinks a person is bad or good.
When your dog is around a good person, you will generally find that it runs up to the person, wags its tail, jumps up and licks the person’s face, and seems excited to be around the person. If your pooch is around a bad person, the signs will be very different.
Your dog is likely to be backing away, have its tail tucked, have its ears down, whine, and may even be afraid to go close to the person. Some dogs may show signs of aggression around a bad person such as exposing the teeth, snapping, and growling. More timid dogs may run away and hide, as they will be reluctant to come out while the bad person is around.
The body language displayed by your dog will vary greatly based on whether it thinks the person is good or bad. Even if the person speaks nicely to your dog, the pooch will not be fooled as it can still sense badness in a person. The hair on the nape of your dog’s neck may stand on edge, it may back away from the person while growling, and it may growl or snap at the person. You may find that your dog is very reluctant to go close to the person and whines or digs its heels in if you try to take it over on a lead.
Signs that your dog thinks someone is bad include:
Other signs that indicate your dog has a bad feeling about someone are:
Why DO guilty dogs put their tails between their legs? Experts say pets know they’ve done something wrong and it’s actually an ‘apology bow’
Professor Nathan Lents said dogs are aware when they have done something wrong and the guilty look afterwards is an apology bow (stock )
The tail-between-the-legs look is the epitome of guilt – and recognisable to any dog owner.
And now researchers believe they have unlocked the psychological reason behind the stance.
A leading animal behaviour expert said dogs are aware when they have done something wrong and the guilty look afterwards is an apology bow.
They hang their heads and put their tails between their legs to make themselves look submissive to owners, and show they are less powerful, Professor Nathan Lents revealed.
And he said dogs inherited this type of behaviour from wolves , who would punish an animal by shunning them if they stepped out of line.
This form of discipline hurts dogs – and wolves – because they hate to be ignored and crave harmonious integration.
Professor Lents wrote: Dogs have inherited this behaviour and they will use it after any kind of infraction that results in being punished
He said neglect or isolation is painful for them.
The professor, who teaches molecular biology at John Jay College in New York, wrote about the concept in a blog post on online magazine Psychology Today.
He said that it is a very interesting phenomenon that goes far beyond the dog-human relationship and actually reveals quite about the nature of communication itself.
The expert said it is actually more complex than you might think.
Professor Lents wrote: Dogs have inherited this behaviour and they will use it after any kind of infraction that results in being punished.
As social animals, they crave harmonious integration in the group and neglect or isolation is painful for them.
Professor Lents said that young wolves first display the apology bow when they begin to learn social integration with other wolves.
How Dogs Can Recognize a Bad Person (And Other Dog Incredible Abilities Explained)
In this world, we have a lot of good people, but sadly, many bad ones as well. The problem for us humans is that we often cannot tell the bad from the good until it is too late and we have already been burnt. Bad people don’t walk around with devil horns or the word bad plastered across their forehead, which is what makes it difficult for us to differentiate.
However, what about our pets? Can a dog sense if a person is good or bad? Well, the answer to this is yes, they are actually very adept at sorting out the good eggs from the bad ones!