Your Dog Doesn’t See You as Human – (Here’s What You Really Are to Them) — Transcript

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1. 0:00When your dog looks at you, do you know
2. 0:02what they actually see?
3. 0:04You probably think they see their owner,
4. 0:06their favorite person, maybe their best
5. 0:09friend.
6. 0:10But the truth is far more extraordinary
7. 0:12than that.
8. 0:13And when you understand what science has
9. 0:15actually found,
10. 0:17>> [music]
11. 0:17>> the way you look at your dog will change
12. 0:18completely.
13. 0:20Most owners have no idea,
14. 0:22which means they are missing something
15. 0:24profound happening right in front of
16. 0:26them every single day.
17. 0:29Let us start with what your dog really
18. 0:31sees when they look at you.
19. 0:33One.
20. 0:34>> [music]
21. 0:34>> You might have heard that cats think you
22. 0:36are just a big cat,
23. 0:38that they see no difference between you
24. 0:40and another member of their colony.
25. 0:42But do not make the mistake of thinking
26. 0:44the same applies to your dog,
27. 0:46because dogs did something cats never
28. 0:48did.
29. 0:49Over 15,000 years of living alongside
30. 0:52humans, dogs evolved an entirely
31. 0:55separate set of social behaviors just
32. 0:57for us.
33. 0:59Scientists call it the human-canine
34. 1:01bond,
35. 1:02>> [music]
36. 1:02>> and it is unlike anything else in the
37. 1:04animal kingdom.
38. 1:06Your dog does not look at you and see a
39. 1:08fellow dog. They look at you and see
40. 1:10something they have been hardwired
41. 1:12across thousands of generations to seek
42. 1:15out, trust, and [music] attach to.
43. 1:18Not an equal, not a pack member,
44. 1:21something closer to a lifeline.
45. 1:24Brian Hare, a cognitive scientist at
46. 1:27Duke University, who has spent his
47. 1:29career studying dog cognition, found
48. 1:31that dogs have developed a unique
49. 1:33ability to read human social cues that
50. 1:36even our closest primate relatives
51. 1:38cannot match.
52. 1:40When you point at something, your dog
53. 1:42follows your finger.
54. 1:44A chimpanzee does not.
55. 1:46A wolf raised by humans does not either.
56. 1:50Your dog understands the language of
57. 1:52human intention in a way that is almost
58. 1:55unsettling,
59. 1:56because it means they did not just learn
60. 1:58to live around us.
61. 2:00They evolved to understand us.
62. 2:02And that understanding shapes everything
63. 2:04about how your dog sees you every single
64. 2:07day.
65. 2:09What scientists [music]
66. 2:10discovered next about how that bond
67. 2:12works inside your dog's brain, we will
68. 2:15get to later in this video.
69. 2:17And when you hear it, it will hit
70. 2:19differently than you expect.
71. 2:22Two,
72. 2:23your dog rehearses your return while you
73. 2:25were gone.
74. 2:26Think about what happens the moment you
75. 2:28pick up your keys. Your dog's ears go
76. 2:31up. They follow you to the door.
77. 2:34Some pace. [music]
78. 2:35Some whine. Some sit and stare at the
79. 2:38door long after you have already left.
80. 2:41For years, people called this separation
81. 2:44anxiety and left it at that.
82. 2:47But researchers started asking a
83. 2:48different question.
84. 2:50What is actually happening inside a dog
85. 2:53during those hours alone?
86. 2:55What they found was remarkable.
87. 2:58Studies tracking dogs left alone showed
88. 3:00that their stress hormones spike within
89. 3:03minutes of the owner leaving.
90. 3:05Their heart rate rises.
91. 3:07Their body is in a state of low-level
92. 3:09alert.
93. 3:10But here is the part that stops most
94. 3:12people in their tracks.
95. 3:14When researchers played recordings of
96. 3:16the owner's voice to dogs left alone,
97. 3:18their stress levels dropped almost
98. 3:20immediately.
99. 3:22Not at the sound of any human voice.
100. 3:24Specifically at the sound of their
101. 3:26owners.
102. 3:28And it is not just sound. Your scent
103. 3:30[music] does the same thing.
104. 3:33A study from Emory University found that
105. 3:35when dogs were shown different scents,
106. 3:38>> [music]
107. 3:38>> only one triggered activation in the
108. 3:40reward center of the brain.
109. 3:42The part of the brain associated with
110. 3:44love,
111. 3:45>> [music]
112. 3:45>> pleasure, and positive anticipation.
113. 3:48That scent was yours. Not food. not
114. 3:52another dog.
115. 3:53You.
116. 3:55Your dog is not simply waiting for you
117. 3:57to come home.
118. 3:58They are holding on to you in every way
119. 4:00their biology allows until you walk back
120. 4:03through that door.
121. 4:05And if this is changing the way you see
122. 4:07your dog right now,
123. 4:08>> [music]
124. 4:08>> go ahead and hit like and subscribe.
125. 4:11We cover what dog behavior actually
126. 4:13means, not what we assume it means.
127. 4:17Up next is one of the strangest
128. 4:18discoveries of all.
129. 4:20Your dog may be reading your face more
130. 4:22carefully than most people ever do.
131. 4:25Three, your dog reads your face better
132. 4:28than most humans do.
133. 4:29>> [music]
134. 4:30>> When you look at another person's face,
135. 4:32your eyes naturally drift to the left
136. 4:34[music] side of their face first.
137. 4:37Scientists call it the left gaze bias.
138. 4:41It happens automatically because the
139. 4:42right side of the human brain, which
140. 4:45processes emotion, controls the left
141. 4:47side of the face. [music]
142. 4:49And we evolved to read that.
143. 4:52Here is what is extraordinary. Your dog
144. 4:54does the exact same thing,
145. 4:56>> [music]
146. 4:56>> but only with humans.
147. 4:58When researchers showed dogs images of
148. 5:01human faces, dog faces, and objects, the
149. 5:04dogs consistently showed a left gaze
150. 5:06bias only for human faces,
151. 5:09not for other dogs, not for anything
152. 5:11else.
153. 5:13They evolved a specifically
154. 5:14human-directed way of reading emotion.
155. 5:17That is why your dog often knows you are
156. 5:19upset before you have said a word or
157. 5:21moved a muscle.
158. 5:23They are reading micro-expressions in
159. 5:25your face with a precision that took
160. 5:27thousands of years to develop. And it
161. 5:30goes even further.
162. 5:32Dogs can distinguish between happy and
163. 5:34angry human faces,
164. 5:36>> [music]
165. 5:36>> even in photographs of people they have
166. 5:37never met.
167. 5:39They know what a human frown means
168. 5:41without ever being taught.
169. 5:43So, the next time your dog pads over to
170. 5:45you quietly and [music] rests their head
171. 5:48in your lap when you are having a hard
172. 5:49day.
173. 5:51Understand that they did not guess.
174. 5:54They read it in your face, processed
175. 5:56[music] it in a brain shaped by 15,000
176. 5:59years of paying attention to yours, and
177. 6:01made a decision.
178. 6:02>> [music]
179. 6:03>> They chose to come.
180. 6:05Four.
181. 6:07The direction your dog wags their tail
182. 6:09is a complete sentence.
183. 6:11Most people assume a wagging tail simply
184. 6:13means a happy dog, but scientists
185. 6:15[music] discovered something that
186. 6:17changes that assumption entirely.
187. 6:20It is not just whether a dog wags,
188. 6:22>> [music]
189. 6:22>> it is which direction they wag.
190. 6:25When a dog sees something that triggers
191. 6:26a positive emotional response, their
192. 6:29owner returning home, a familiar friend,
193. 6:32something they love,
194. 6:33>> [music]
195. 6:33>> the wag skews to the right.
196. 6:36More movement on the right side of the
197. 6:38tail.
198. 6:39When a dog feels uncertain, anxious, or
199. 6:42is facing a stranger that puts them on
200. 6:44alert, the wag skews to the left.
201. 6:47And here is what makes it even more
202. 6:49remarkable.
203. 6:51Other dogs can read this.
204. 6:53Researchers in Italy found that when
205. 6:55dogs were shown videos of other dogs
206. 6:57wagging right, they stayed calm and
207. 7:00relaxed.
208. 7:01>> [music]
209. 7:01>> When shown dogs wagging left, their own
210. 7:04heart rates increased.
211. 7:06Their bodies responded to the signal
212. 7:08automatically.
213. 7:09Your dog has a tail vocabulary that they
214. 7:11did not learn. They were born with it,
215. 7:14>> [music]
216. 7:14>> and they are using it every single day.
217. 7:18The height of the wag carries meaning,
218. 7:19too.
219. 7:20>> [music]
220. 7:21>> A tail held high and wagging fast
221. 7:23signals confidence and excitement.
222. 7:26A tail low and moving slowly can signal
223. 7:29submission or appeasement.
224. 7:32So, your dog is not just wagging at you,
225. 7:34>> [music]
226. 7:34>> they are talking to you. And they have
227. 7:36been doing it every single day, waiting
228. 7:40for you to listen.
229. 7:41There is one final discovery that ties
230. 7:44all of this together, and once you hear
231. 7:46it, everything else starts to make
232. 7:48sense. Five.
233. 7:50You are the center of your dog's entire
234. 7:53world.
235. 7:54And there is a neurochemical reason for
236. 7:56that.
237. 7:57In 2015,
238. 7:59a study published in the journal Science
239. 8:01made headlines around the world.
240. 8:04Researchers found that when dogs and
241. 8:06their owners simply gazed into each
242. 8:08other's eyes, both the dog and the human
243. 8:11showed a significant rise in oxytocin,
244. 8:14the bonding hormone,
245. 8:16the same chemical that surges between a
246. 8:18mother and her newborn child in the
247. 8:21first moments after birth.
248. 8:23Let that sit for a moment.
249. 8:26Your dog looks at you, and their brain
250. 8:28releases the same chemistry that humans
251. 8:30use to bond with their babies.
252. 8:33And when you look back [music] at them,
253. 8:34yours does, too.
254. 8:36This is not sentiment. This is not pet
255. 8:39owners projecting emotions onto animals.
256. 8:42This is a documented biological loop,
257. 8:45a feedback cycle of bonding [music] that
258. 8:47your dog triggers simply by looking at
259. 8:50you.
260. 8:51And remember what we talked about at the
261. 8:52very beginning,
262. 8:53>> [music]
263. 8:54>> how dogs evolved specifically to read
264. 8:56human faces, follow human cues, and
265. 9:00respond to human emotion in ways no
266. 9:02other animal can.
267. 9:05This is what that evolution was building
268. 9:07toward,
269. 9:08a creature that does not just live
270. 9:10alongside you, a creature that is
271. 9:12neurochemically wired to you.
272. 9:15Your dog does not tolerate your
273. 9:16presence.
274. 9:18They do not simply accept you as part of
275. 9:20their environment.
276. 9:21>> [music]
277. 9:21>> You are the reason their brain releases
278. 9:23its most powerful bonding chemical.
279. 9:26You are the scent their reward center
280. 9:28lights up for.
281. 9:30You are the face their eyes have evolved
282. 9:32specifically to read.
283. 9:34Your dog does not see a human when they
284. 9:36look at you.
285. 9:37They do not see an owner.
286. 9:39They see the one presence their entire
287. 9:41biology was built to find.
288. 9:44They see you. [music]
289. 9:46And to them, that is everything.