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25th Oct 2012

Woman’s Best Friend: Dog’s Show Empathy by Copying the Yawns of Their Owners

Feeling tired? Chances are it's having an effect on your pet pooch too!

Her

Are you a dog person? If so, here’s a story to warm you up on this chilly autumn morning. In fact, chances are it’ll make you want to run home and give your pet pooch a massive cuddle (just don’t tell your boss why you were late for work).

According to some new research today, loveable pet dogs copy the yawns of their owners in order to empathise with our tiredness. Yes, really.

Dogs are much more in tune with us than we really realise

We always knew that dogs were a man’s best friend and the fact that they sympathise with our sleep deprivation just males is love them even more! They’re definitely our BFFs.

The research, which was undertaken by Lund University in Sweden, revealed that our furry companions have the ability to catch yawns from humans once they’re seven months old.

Had too many late nights? Your pet dog will feel it too!

And apparently, like humans, dogs show a susceptibility to contagious yawning. So if you’ve been working hard and skimping on sleep, you might notice your dog yawning more than usual.

So they’re always happy to see us, they always want a cuddle and now they show some solidarity with our own tiredness – dogs are amazing!

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