Yawning is Contagious... For Dogs

We've all done it, someone starts yawning and before you know it, everyone in the room is yawning. In fact, you're probably yawning right now, just from reading about yawning.

According to a new study (pdf) from Birkbeck University in London, contagious yawning isn't just a human trait, dogs can catch it too. Out of the twenty-nine K9's that were studied, twenty-one dogs had contagious yaws when they observed a human yawning. It's the first time contagious yawning has been seen outside of the primate community. Contagious yawing has only been scientifically observed before in humans and chimpanzees.

Contagious yawning more likely from dogs than other humans.

The researchers say it is more than just monkey see monkey do, or in this case doggie do. Contagious yawning doesn't necessarily mean you just bore your dog; the presence of contagious yawning in K9's suggests that Spot has the ability for basic empathy. In fact, the percentage of contagious yawning observed in dogs was much higher, over seventy percent, than contagious yawning percentages observed in chimps or humans. Human contagious yawning averages between forty-five and sixty percent, while the chimps average was just above thirty percent.

The study notes that there are at least two reasons why human yawns bring out yawning in dogs. With the K9's exceptional ability to read social signals from humans, possibly due to their domesticity, the family pooch may have a high capacity for empathy. The study also points out that its possible a dog's susceptibility for contagious yawning may be due to increased stress or tension. K9 contagious yawns may be a result of the dog seeing yawing as a sign of antagonism in humans.

The Birkbeck University study does point out that their somewhat limited initial study doesn't have enough data to discriminate between the two possibilities for contagious yawning in dogs. Further research would be needed to attempt to understand the underlying origin of K9 contagious yawning and how it relates to empathy.

Your dog may just think you're boring.

So maybe you dog yawns when you do because they are man's best friends; dogs understand us, have a deep emotional bond to their human masters and a lot of empathy. Maybe when they see us yawn it's just a sign of being unsure, showing their stress and tension to what they feel is uneasiness in their owners. Of course there's always the possibility that your dog is just as bored as you are. In that case, get the leash and let Fido take you for a nice drag in the park.