Study: Your Dog Yawns With You Because They Love You

[Purveyor]

TIRED DOG LOVERS who think their pet pooch is yawning right along with them may just be right, according to a Japanese study.

Dubbed “contagious yawning”, the new research says man’s best friend can sense human fatigue and, in a possible show of empathy, will join humans in a big yawn.

Canines yawn more often when it’s their owner who’s involved, added the study conducted by researchers at Tokyo and Kyoto universities, which was published in US science journal PLOS One this week.

“Our study suggests that contagious yawning in dogs is emotionally connected in a way similar to humans,” said Teresa Romero of the University of Tokyo who led the study.
Romero’s team measured the dogs’ heart rate while observing their response to human yawning. She said this allowed researchers to rule out the possibility that the dog yawns were just a stress response.

MORE...

http://www.thejournal.ie/dog-yawn-1028743-Aug2013/

That works both ways. If my Husky yawns first, it causes me to yawn too...

[hollysmom]

1. I find that when my dog yawns, I yawn after her. She makes me tired, heh.

[NV Whino]

2. And cats yawn because they're bored...

With you.

[NightWatcher]

3. What does it mean when he licks himself?

[branford]

5. I think it also means he loves you! :)

[undergroundpanther]

4. My cats yawn I yawn

and vice versa.I even yawned after my snake yawned.

[shenmue]

6. Zzzzzzz

Sleepy time is good.

[ellie]

7. I miss my dog.

<a href=".html" target="_blank"><img src="" border="0" alt="Ziggy photo Ziggy_zps33b268b1.jpg"/></a>

[Enrique]

8. when cats do it, they are mocking you

they find you ridiculous