Dogs understand us better than we think, study suggests

Dogs are more capable of understanding us better than we thought, a study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth found that dogs were able to alter their behavior when their master's perspective had changed, said BBC.

The findings are some of the first to show scientifically that our dogs are in tune with what we're thinking.

The study looked at 84 dogs, with researchers conducting an experiment to get to the bottom of dogs' understanding.

The dogs were at first verbally forbidden by their owner to taste a food sample provided by researchers.

After the refusal, the lights were turned off and the dog was once again forbidden from tasting the treats, said the Daily Mail.

This time, however, the dog was far more likely to sniff the food out and eat it, possibly knowing that his owner's temporary blindness meant a free pass.

According to RedOrbit, study author Juliane Kaminski said the study was "incredible because it implies dogs understand the human can't see them, meaning they might understand the human perspective."

Previous studies have suggested that we project emotions onto our dog and believe that it feels them.

Some even believe their dog smiles.

This study gets a little closer to showing that sometimes dogs might understand something from our point of view – in this case, we are blind and helpless to stop them.

The new findings were published in the journal Animal Cognition.