Washington : Dogs are less likely to follow bad advice from humans, according to a new study which found that, in contrast to kids, the canines only copy a person’s actions if they are absolutely necessary for solving the task at hand, says to PTI. “Children tend to copy all of a teacher’s actions, regardless of whether they are necessary or not,” said Laurie Santos, director of the Canine Cognition Centre at Yale University in the US.
In a previous study, children watched a demonstrator solve a puzzle by first moving a lever and then lifting a lid to pull out a prize. Although the lever was completely irrelevant for solving the puzzle, children repeatedly performed both actions, even when they were in a race to solve the puzzle as quickly as possible.
The new study shows that dogs out irrelevant actions when there is a more efficient way to solve a problem, even when a human repeatedly demonstrates these actions. “Although dogs are highly social animals, they draw the line at copying irrelevant actions,” said lead author Angie Johnston.
