It’s no secret that dogs can sense people’s emotions. Whether you’re happy or sad, your dog can know exactly how you’re feeling. They can even pick up on your gestures and communication cues and there’s research that can back that up.

Dogs’ list of special skills doesn’t end there.

Based on recent studies, dogs can also know if someone’s a bad person. They can help you know whether or not to trust another human. In today’s world, that skill can be a huge help.

Kyoto University’s Akiko Takaoka conducted a study.

It’s a three-part study that involved humans, dogs, and jars with tasty treats.

In the first round, a human pointed to a jar filled with treats. He showed the dogs what was inside and they happily ate it. Dogs like treats and seeing them made the animals feel excited.

The human did the exact same thing during the second round. The only difference was that the jars were empty. This left the dogs confused instead of happy.

In the third round, the human repeated what he did during the first round. However, this time, most of the dogs that participated didn’t believe him so they refused to follow the instruction.

To test the theory, the researchers did the same experiment but with a different human.

And just like the first round of the first experiment, the dogs followed the instructions when he pointed at the treat-filled jar. The research suggested that dogs are able to use previous experiences to know if someone’s unreliable.

The researchers plan on repeating the experiment.

However, instead of dogs, they’re planning to try it out with wolves. They believe the animals are closely related to dogs and they want to see if the lack of domestication can affect the results.

A similar study showed an equally intriguing result.

It involved three groups of participants- dog owners, strangers who’ll help, and strangers who won’t help.

The study involved 18 different dogs tested in three scenarios. Its main goal was to find out if dogs can really tell a bad person from a good one.

The researchers allowed the dogs to watch their humans as they asked for help in opening a box.

In the first part of the study, the stranger refused to help. During the second part, the stranger came to help while the stranger in the third part didn’t do anything after being asked.

At the end of the study, the dogs showed hesitancy around the group of strangers who didn’t help their humans. And the most intriguing part? They didn’t accept treats from them, too!

Dogs are more intelligent than you think.

And they are quite reliable when it comes to a lot of things. You can expect them to be loyal to you and to protect you if they feel like you’re in danger. And with the results of these studies, you can also rely on them in knowing if someone should be trusted or not.

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Source: BBC, AKC, Science Direct