Dogs sometimes become members of the family, beyond just pets, and in that trust placedin conjunction with traditional beliefs, it has sometimes been expressed that dogs have that sense of extra that indicates when a person who comes to the house is “harmless” or, on the contrary, would not have good intentions.
However, leaving aside traditional social beliefs, experts have shown that these animals, like humans, tend to have their own judgment regarding the people they meet; in that sense, when they decide to bark or not at someone, it may be because it is simply not to their liking, among other reasons.
To start with, a dog’s bark is their main language, so they bark every time they want to communicate something to their owners. “When a dog barks it can express that it feels happy, curious or hungry, among many things. By looking for signs in his mood and environment, you will be able to understand what he means to you, as it is his way of communicating with you”, explains the specialized portal Purina.
Adding that: “They often (and most of the time) bark for attention and it is their way of communication. They also bark when they want to warn their owners of the presence of an intruder. Or when they feel threatened. If verbal warning is of no use, the next step may be to use your teeth.” indicating some of the reasons why furry ones tend to bark.
Meanwhile, when this action is repeated towards a particular individual, or even different strangers, According to experts, this might be due to the pet’s own judgment that it does not like the person, or perhaps it might be a territorial signal.
“Dogs are the same as people. There are people that you like better and others that you like worse. Well, the same to them. Dogs don’t like people, so to speak… Dogs tend to be very territorial and often just bark at people they don’t know, especially when they invade their safe space, so to speak”affirmed Felipe Vázquez Montoto, a Spanish veterinarian, in an interview with the specialized portal Wamiz.
In this way, the expert stated that this type of behavior can be triggered in a pet for different reasons. Apparently, the canine can detect the stranger’s smell or his way of expressing himself gesturally and not like it at all, so, to get that person away from his space, then he barks at him.
Do dogs learn to control impulses?
Dogs regulate their behavior in ways similar to humans, more specifically young children, new research from La Trobe University has revealed.
The study, recently published in Animal Cognition, identified a total of six key markers of executive function in dogsmany of which overlap with structures associated with human cognition, including the ability to follow instructions, control physical impulses, and use working memory.
Principal Investigator and Ph.D. candidate at La Trobe University, Maike Foraita, He said that despite expressing it in different ways, dogs regulate their behavior similarly to young children.
“A pet dog learns to control its impulses much like a child does; inhibits their urge to chew on furniture or bark at visitors, it can remember routines and do what its owner says,” Foraita said in a statement.
“Humans do this, too: We exhibit delay inhibition and motor inhibition when we wait for a piece of cake to be handed to us, instead of taking the entire cake with our hands.”
Foraita said dogs likely developed these human-like cognitive structures over tens of thousands of years living in domestic settings.
