Female dogs judge humans when they make mistakes

A new study has proven that pooches do secretively make assumptions about us when we make mistakes - but only if they are female dogs.

Researchers from Kyoto University in Japan set up an experiment where the canines were shown a 'competent' person who was able to open a container and an 'incompetent' person who could not.

The two people were then given containers with food in them to try and open, and the study found that the female dogs looked significantly longer at the 'competent' person.

However, the male dogs had no preference for either the 'competent' or 'incompetent' person in the task.

The study's lead author, Hitomi Chijiiwa, said: "Our findings show that dogs, especially female dogs, are able to identify human competence, which can influence their behaviour, particularly if food is involved.

"Future studies should investigate the potential sex differences among dogs in the way they evaluate humans."

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