EKU researcher asks "We speak, but are our dogs listening during play?"

An Eastern Kentucky University professor has spent decades researching animal-person interaction. Much of that focuses on humans and dogs.

EKU Foundation Professor of Animal Studies and Psychology Bob Mitchell said a current paper centers on attention-getting activities during play with dogs. And for all the talking that pet owners may do during times of play, Mitchell said the four-legged playmates may not be listening.

“When dogs are playing with you, they pretty much know what they are doing. So, they don’t really need to be told ‘attend to me.’ Or they don’t need to be told go get it, because they are already on their way to get it,” said Mitchell.

Mitchell said previous research dealt with humans and dogs barking and growling at each other during play. The EKU professor, earlier in his career, studied monkey behavior at a primate center in France.

Mitchell said what’s going on in a dog’s head is probably not deep thinking.

“Probably dogs have the ability to have mental images. It’s not clear they can do much planning with those the way we do. But, dogs seem to dream. You know everyone I think would agree that dogs have some kind of internal consciousness in addition to perceptual consciousness,” said Mitchell.

Mitchell noted dogs, by and large, are good at understanding humans and following our points as can many other animals. But, the EKU professor added there’s little to suggests that dogs are major thinkers.

Here's the interview with EKU Professor Bob Mitchell:

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