Puppies Only Pick Up Yawns When They're Old Enough To Understand Empathy
Yawning Husky Wikimedia CommonsDogs catch yawns from humans, but not if they're too young. To perform this study, Danish scientists cuddled with puppies all day. Dogs catch contagious yawns just like people, baboons and chimps, which can be used as a measure of empathy. But this is a behavior they learn after they emerge from youngest puppyhood, a new study says. Like people, young dogs show a developmental trend in their likelihood of catching yawns. This is the first time anyone has studied young-organism yawning in a species other than people. Anyone who owns a dog knows you can catch a yawn from your pet, and vice versa. My dog, a 5-year-old border collie rescue, has this piercing yawn-peak squeal and head shiver that literally makes it impossible not to catch it. And I have seen her watching me, yawning after I do. She would have started this after about seven months...