Best friends really DO do everything together!
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Here’s a thought for those yawning in their chairs as the weekend winds down: Dogs are supposed to be man’s best friend. And since best friends like to do things together, the conclusions of a study released this week make perfect sense: human yawns are contagious to dogs.
Times Staff Writer Denise Gellene has the details on the study published in the journal Biology Letters:
The study of 29 dogs was conducted at the University of London in two stages. First, each dog watched a male researcher perform a large yawn and then, in the control portion of the experiment, the dogs took turns observing the same researcher merely open his mouth.Seventy-two percent, or 21 of the 29 dogs, yawned after watching the researcher yawn -- higher than the 45% to 60% rate reported in humans and the 33% rate reported in chimps.No dogs yawned during the control portion of the experiment.’Dogs are not only reading and responding but may be sharing feelings with humans,’ said Atsushi Senju, a research fellow at the University of London’s Birkbeck College and one of the study authors.
Here’s hoping the dog in the photo above doesn’t reflect the girls’ interest in reading (or lack thereof). If the study’s theory were reversed, the dog could be a bad influence.
-- Francisco Vara-Orta