Yawning puppies

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) — Do you get tired when others yawn? Does your dog get tired when you yawn? New research from Lund University in Sweden establishes that dogs catch yawns from humans. But not if the dogs are too young. The study, published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition, found that, like humans, dogs show a developmental trend in susceptibility to contagious yawning. While dogs above seven months of age catch human yawns, younger dogs are immune to yawn contagion.

Contagious yawning is not just a sign of sleepiness or boredom. Previous research has shown contagious yawning in humans, adult chimpanzees, baboons and dogs, and suggests that it can be used as a measure of empathy. Empathy, mimicking the emotional responses of others, is difficult to measure directly, but contagious yawning allows assessment of a behavioral empathetic response, the researchers say.

While the development of contagious yawning in human children has seen much research, this is the first study to investigate its development in another species.

Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121023100942.htm

Dogs copy their owners' yawns

Dogs are compelled to yawn if they hear their owners do the same, according to a new study.

Researchers claimed that dogs responded to an audio cue such as a yawn even if they didn't see the action taking place.

The study found this was particularly noticeable when the dogs were listening to the yawns of people they knew.

Scientists suggested the findings, presented at the National Ethology Congress in Lisbon, showed canines had empathy to human behaviours.

"These results suggest that dogs have the capacity to empathise with humans," said lead author Karine Silva, from the University of Porto, Portugal.

For their study, researchers selected 29 dogs that had lived with their owners for at least six months.

They recorded the owners yawning before playing it back to the pets, along with recordings of the yawn of a stranger.

The study said nearly half of all dogs yawned when they heard a recording of a human being making a yawning noise

But the results also found the dogs were five times more likely to yawn when they heard their owners' voices played back.

http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Dogs_copy_their_owners_yawns