While it is known that dogs “see” the world through their nose, new research has shown that your scent is not the only way a dog can recognize you.
Related: Dogs Way of Seeing is Actually 60 Million Times Better Than Ours
Researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland discovered that dogs are more receptive to photographs of faces they recognize, than those unfamiliar to them.
This conclusion was reached after the group examined 23 pet dogs and 8 shelter dogs. Dogs that were part of a family were more reactive to human faces than those that received less human interaction living in a shelter. Also, it was found dogs like checking out the faces of other pups more than people.
The study wanted to determine if dogs could recognize human faces that were upside down, or inverted. We are able to do so, but we tend to view features as separate, not an entire face.
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On the other hand, dogs were focused on the eyes, regardless if the face was upside down or not, suggesting they see the face as one entity, rather than separate objects.
The findings were published in
In a new study published in the Animal Cognition journal.
Related: Just Discovered: Dogs Ability to Scan Faces Is Similar to Humans
Image from Flickr/Matthew
