Contageous doggie yawn


by Dr. Donna Spector

 We have all been a "victim" of the contagious yawn…but did you know that dogs catch the "yawning bug" from people also? Researchers from the University of London have recently shown for the first time that dogs can "catch" our yawns, too! This involuntary reaction, triggered by watching someone else yawn, had previously only been observed amongst humans and chimps. A researcher suggested that this may indicate that dogs possess the rudimentary capacity for understanding behavior and emotions. Contagious yawns or not…if you are a dog owner you know they are able to understand your every thought and feeling! Nonetheless , the research is cool! In this study 29 dogs (including Labs, Dobermans, and Yorkies) watched a person yawn and it caused 72% of the dogs to do the same. When the dogs watched a person just open their mouth, none of the dogs yawned in response.