Dogs 5 times likelier to `catch` yawns from their owners than strangers

London - Dogs yawn even when they only hear the sound of their owners doing the same, a new study has revealed.

The study found that nearly half of all dogs yawned when played a recording of a human being making such a noise.

But when the yawn played belonged to their owners, the canines were five times more likely than if the voice belonged to a stranger.

The researchers said it was further proof that dogs empathise with their owners and understand what they are going through.

“These results suggest that dogs have the capacity to empathise with humans,” the Daily Mail quoted Karine Silva, a behavioural biologist and the lead researcher of the study, as saying.

Previous studies have found that dogs are among the few non-human animals to yawn - others include macaques, baboons and chimpanzees.

When somebody ‘catches’ another person’s yawn it has long been taken as a sign you understand what they are going through - and are tired as well.

To see if canines do the same researchers from University of Porto in Portugal tested 29 dogs which had lived with their owners for at least six months.

They recorded the owners yawning and played the recordings to their dogs, along with the yawn of an unfamiliar woman and a control sound, which was a yawn noise played backwards.

The dogs were given two sessions one week apart and the number of yawns for each noise was monitored.

The results showed that when dogs heard their owners they were by far more likely to yawn than under any other set of circumstances.

Scientists who were not involved in the study said it gave new insight into human and dog relations.

The study will be published in the July issue of Animal Cognition.