Your dog can recognize you even just on photo

[Jae Manzel]

It's not a secret that dogs will recognize their owners' faces in person, but what about when a canine companion is only shown a photo or video of a family member?

A recent study on eye-movement from the University of Helsinki in Finland demonstrated that dogs recognize humans in images as well.

In this study, 31 dogs watched a video screen showing pictures of dog and human faces while researchers monitored their eye movement. Some of the images were of familiar faces - their owner or another dog in the house, while other pictures were of strangers.

“The results indicate that dogs were able to perceive faces in the images," said Dr. Outi Vainio, study leader and professor of veterinary medicine at the university.

Dogs were also more likely to stare at the image of a familiar face than a stranger’s. The study also showed that dogs would gaze at images of other dogs longer than images of humans, regardless of whether the faces were familiar.

This research was published online in the journal Animal Cognition.

Read more: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_1...on-photo-8061/

[Lars Redoubt]

Dogs are real comrades. And cats are too, in some strange way, even if they are mostly whackos.