Anyone who owns a dog knows that little Floppy Ears is listening to every word you say and watching everything you do. He will follow you around and be right in the middle of your business, even when you really need some time to work or handle business. That is one of the most irritating and at the same time, loveable traits that our little furry loved ones possess. But do you have any idea how much he is really understanding what he is hearing or seeing? It turns out, Floppy Ears is catching on to a lot more than you might think. Based on a study done by the Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna, dogs will adopt various traits and actions that they see repeated by their human family members. While this sounds a little bit farfetched, the results of the study as well as your own experience with your pets will prove the truth in it if you just sit back and look at it objectively.

The Study

Friederike Range, a lead researcher on this study at the University of Vienna, planned an experiment using ten dogs of different breeds. She executed this experiment by first teaching all of the dogs how to slide a glass door open using either their paw or their head. After they were taught how to do this themselves, they were then able to watch their owners open the sliding glass door. Each dog's owner opened the door either with his head or with his hand. If he were to open the sliding glass using his head, the owner would get on all fours. Splitting the dogs up into two separate groups, each group was given a different set of circumstances. Group A was given an edible prize for opening the door in the same manner his owner had, and Group B was given an edible prize for opening it the opposite way.

By the end of this experiment, the results were overwhelming. All of the canine participants preferred opening the door however his or her owner did, even if that meant not receiving their edible treat. This is astounding to anyone who has ever trained a dog before, because we all know that Floppy Ears will do almost anything for a treat. It turns out, however, that he would much rather just do what you are doing.

Benefits in Training

This knowledge can really be of great benefit to those of us who train our own dogs. We can now adjust and adapt our training style to reflect the results of this experiment. We already do this when teaching them little tricks, such as shaking hands. When you are trying to get Floppy Ears to shake hands with you, what do you normally do? You put out your hand. Because he is imitating your actions, Floppy Ears puts out his paw in the same manner, and you have a successful handshake. If you can apply this principle to other areas of training, it could very well make it much easier for both your dog and you.

Knowing that your dog will imitate your actions puts a whole new perspective on his behavior, doesn't it? If you catch him doing something that you have told him over and over again not to do, maybe you should look back and see if perhaps you are doing something that is creating this problem. Perhaps the next time your dog reaches up and grabs something off the table to eat, maybe you should not be quite as mad as you normally are. Of course, that is not an acceptable thing for Floppy Ears to do, so you should definitely make him stop and help him to understand that he is not allowed to do that. But maybe you should be just a little flattered, as well. After all, YOU eat off the table, now, don't you?