Latest news with #HollyMolinaro
Washington Post
04-07-2025
- General
- Washington Post
What do we really know about man's best friend?
Post readers write about their relationship with their dogs. And the president and CEO of the ASPCA shares how we can protect them. Regarding Clive D.L. Wynne and Holly Molinaro's June 1 op-ed, 'If dogs' emotions seem simple, it's because humans have them all wrong': Copper is one of our older dogs, and we've had her since 2011. In her younger years (and mine, too) she was my running buddy. She even ran half-marathons with me. She was always a little mouthy, and she seemed to bark whenever she felt like we weren't including her in the conversation. Spending so much time with her, I always felt like I knew exactly what she was feeling. However, last year, she had to have her rear leg amputated. This made moving around challenging for her, and she barks even more to communicate her needs. I try really hard to understand her, but sometimes it takes me a few tries to ascertain what she wants. It is interesting observing the other dogs when she gets frustrated communicating to me because they seem to try to soothe and support her. I don't know if they get it or if they are just as befuddled as I am. Either way, we are all doing the best we can together. Stephanie McCaslin, La Plata, Maryland It's incredible that, as Clive D.L. Wynne and Holly Molinaro's June 1 op-ed noted, dogs have learned to read humans much better than we can read them. One emotion I think I understand in my dog is disappointment. If we don't respond when he wants to play and brings us a toy, he will just lie down. We interpret it as dejection. We also think that the shivering and whimpering he does as we approach doggy day care is excited anticipation, not fear, because he jumps out of the car into the waiting leash of the caregivers without a look back at us. Maggie Symington, Rochester Some years ago, I was walking on a beach with my Labrador, Fury. He has now passed on to heavenly beaches, but he used to love running about and sniffing the wonderful fishy smells. This beach was well known for the tide coming in without warning, so you'd be walking on firm sand and suddenly come across a soggy bit, which I feared because of my bad hip. As the tide sought to trap me by my shoes, I felt deep concern as I knew I would fall, and it would be difficult to get back up. Fury came up beside me, and I put my hand on his collar, and he led me to dry sand where I could walk easily again. Immediately after, he took off running again, wagging that wonderful tail. I was stunned by his help, as I had not understood before how in tune he was with my emotions. Let's face it: If I'd been walking with a person, I would have had to ask whether I could latch on to their arm for support. I also realized how clever Fury was at behaving in such a knowing and empathetic way. No trainer could have taught him that trick. Patricia Burbridge, Dublin Story continues below advertisement Advertisement The way I communicate with my dogs, I believe, is very common among observant owners. Benji, our small, 2-year-old goldendoodle, is our third dog, and he is very expressive. He has a goldendoodle girlfriend, Callie, whom he likes to visit and roughhouse with a few times a week. He has a variety of interactions with each of the 23 dogs who live on our street, and I believe that I can tell when he is happy, nervous or disinterested in his encounters with those dogs. His downward-dog position is an invitation to roughhouse, so I prepare myself for wild chasing. His tucked tail, rounded back and slinking movements show me he is nervous. So I speak to him softly to reassure him and leave the encounter quickly. There are times when I can tell he would rather move along sniffing than engage with another oncoming dog, and he communicates that by raising his head and turning away from the other animal. When he is really interested in meeting a new friend, he will sit down and wait for the dog to reach him. He also has definite ideas about the direction in which he wants to walk, and he balks if I walk in 'the wrong direction.' He will plant his paws and pull backward. We negotiate the direction with a pocketful of treats, and he either deigns to go in my preferred direction, or I give in and follow his lead. Ellen Jacobs, Westmount, Quebec When we brought our dog home, we had to spend some time getting to know each other. We had another dog at the time who happened to be our dog's biological uncle, and we watched their relationship grow as well. I put our new puppy through extensive training, and she earned her good canine citizen certificate. I believe I can usually read her, but I also recognize that without a mutual language, I might get it wrong sometimes. Though, to be fair, we often get confused with interpreting human emotions or feelings, even with words! While thinking about the studies Clive D.L. Wynne and Holly Molinaro mentioned in their June 1 op-ed, I wonder whether dogs have a dominant paw the way humans have a dominant hand. If that is the case, I think that our puppy is left-pawed. I wonder whether there has been research into that possibility, and, if so, would that affect how her tail wags when communicating her emotion? Eric Pittelkau, Springfield I pay a lot of attention to my dog, so I've learned a lot about him. He is a border terrier, a very smart breed, and I sometimes think he's just as smart as I am. Lately, I've been worried about how he reacts to the way I communicate to my elderly husband. My husband's hearing has been getting worse, and, because he doesn't like wearing his hearing aids, if I want to talk to him I sometimes have to almost yell. I have noticed that my dog likes to lie in the bed he came with when we rescued him four years ago — even though he has other beds. And I have also noticed he knows many more words than he did when we rescued him. He also seems to think about food a lot. Connie Davis, Pardeeville, Wisconsin My relationship with my dog is still evolving. I've learned a lot from Turid Rugaas's book 'On Talking Terms with Dogs: Calming Signals,' which explains what it means when dogs lick their mouths. The licks are quick, often almost imperceptible, and for comfort. Watching my dog lick for comfort has caused me to modify my actions with her. I pay attention and stop whatever I'm doing that I may not have otherwise understood causes her discomfort. I will say that licking her chops for food is very different and definitely a happy sign. Going forward, I will now also watch the direction of her tail, even though it's docked, which might make deciphering which direction it wags difficult. Dianne Holley, Austin Story continues below advertisement Advertisement No more puppy mills Americans love their dogs. According to the Pew Research Center, a whopping 97 percent of us view our pets as family members. But as Jennifer McCartney discussed in her June 16 online op-ed, 'The 'puppy farm capital of Europe' changed a cruel practice. So can the U.S.,' many of our beloved animals come from horrific puppy mills, where dogs are viewed as dollar signs, not pets. It is a system built on deception and cruelty, designed to create big profits. And in the United States, it's completely legal. The good news is that we've made tremendous progress in the past decade in shutting down the puppy mill pipeline. Localities across the country are barring the sale of such dogs in pet shops, but pet stores aren't the only outlet for puppy mills. Slick websites with cute photos and empty promises of humane care can provide a convincing facade for cruel puppy mills. Buying a puppy? Then I suggest you meet the puppy's mother. This helps ensure that the puppy comes from a safe environment and that the breeder treats the dogs humanely. It's that simple. And though members of the public can do their part by being informed consumers, we also need better legal protections for these dogs. Goldie's Act, which was recently reintroduced in the House, could help do just that. No dog deserves to suffer, and Goldie's Act could be the lifeline that animals in these cruel facilities need. Congress should pass it now. Matt Bershadker, New York The writer is president and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Many people are unaware that the adorable puppies sold in retail stores often come from puppy mills, where their mothers and fathers can be severely abused. Luckily for the animals, several states and hundreds of cities and counties have banned the sale of commercially bred dogs in stores. As public awareness grows, I hope this trend continues. The existence of puppy mills is one of the reasons we have a severe dog overpopulation problem in America, which leads to hundreds of thousands of dogs being euthanized in shelters every year. I encourage readers who have room in their hearts and homes to visit their local shelter or rescue group. They'll be amazed at how many wonderful canines of all sizes, shapes, ages and breeds are ready for a home. Jennifer McCartney suggested in her June 16 online op-ed that people only buy from 'responsible breeders.' But why buy a dog when you can rescue one? Until the overpopulation crisis is addressed, 'responsible breeder' is an oxymoron. Adopt, don't shop! Stewart David, Las Cruces, New Mexico
Forbes
09-06-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Study Finds People Aren't Good At Reading Dog Body Language
Humans don't understand dogs' body language and corresponding emotions as well as we think we do, according to new research from the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University. The study involved a favorite activity of many dog lovers: watching dog videos. As part of her Ph.D. research, Holly Molinaro shot videos of her father interacting with the family dog, Oliver. Sometimes he would offer Oliver a treat or show him a leash for a walk, which made the dog happy. In other videos, he might reprimand Oliver or hold up his nemesis, a cat named Saffron. Working with Clive Wynne, Ph.D., director of the Canine Science Collaboratory and author of 'Dog is Love: Why and How Your Dog Loves You,' Molinaro then showed three versions of the videos to 400 study participants — which led to surprising results. When the videos were unedited, a majority of people could correctly identify whether Oliver was happy or stressed. But when the videos were edited to simply show Oliver with a black background, they couldn't form an opinion about the dog's emotions. When the videos were edited to show Oliver reacting to a different prompt than what actually happened — like the father showing Oliver a cat in the video, when in reality he had been offering the dog a piece of cheese — participants had strong and wrong opinions about how Oliver was feeling. 'The whole study was very surprising,' Dr. Wynne said. 'The finding, in a nutshell, is that when you show people a video of a dog reacting to something and you ask them how the dog is feeling, they will look at everything you show them except the dog when making their mind up. So people are really bad at paying attention to dogs when it comes to assessing how a dog is feeling — whether a dog is happy or sad.' One important caveat is that due to ethical considerations, the research did not involve doing anything to make Oliver extremely distressed, Dr. Wynne notes. Instead, the research was limited to potentially negative things a dog might encounter in an ordinary day, such as a cat or nail clippers. 'I'm pretty confident that people would have accurately identified a terrified dog,' he says. 'We just wouldn't do that.' Since dogs live in 68 million U.S. homes, Dr. Wynne feels it's imperative that people make a concerted effort to better read their emotions. 'One of the morals I draw from our research is that I encourage people to get to know their own dog,' he says. 'Now I'm on a mission to convince people that they don't really know what a dog is feeling and that they should give their dog a chance to teach them.' He suggests paying close attention to what your dog does when they're typically excited or happy about an activity, such as seeing a leash when it's time for a walk. 'We need to watch our whole dog from the tip of their tail to the tip of the snout and everything in between. The ears can be expressive. Obviously the hackles, how the hair moves, the overall bodily posture,' he says. 'As much as possible, just try to be like a scientist: don't watch by imposing your preconceptions, watch neutrally and learn. Let the dog teach you what their happiness looks like, what their anxiety looks like.' Puppies and dogs are individuals, so Dr. Wynne advises against making one-size-fits-all assumptions about canine body language, facial expressions and noises. For example, growling is generally considered to be a threatening warning from a less-than-happy dog. But his late mixed-breed dog, Xephos, used to growl in happiness. (Similarly, attuned people with Rottweilers often know their dogs are happy when they hear the 'Rottie Rumble' during play — almost like a cat's purr.) When a dog yawns, they might be sleepy or just awakening from a nap, but yawning can also be a sign of stress (particularly when ears are pinned back, and eyes are averted). A 'smiling' dog might just be keeping their mouth open because it's hot. While some people believe a wagging tail is always a happy sign, it can also indicate anxiety. Research in Italy found that when dogs wag their tails to the right, they're experiencing positive emotions; conversely, a left-wagging tail denotes negative emotions, he notes. Ultimately, learning to understand how our dogs are feeling will help us be better companions, according to Dr. Wynne. 'We have 80 million dogs living in our homes in the United States, and the vast majority of us want what's best for our dogs – we love them and want what's best for them,' he says. 'But how can we do that if we don't actually know when they're happy and when they're stressed? We have to know how they're feeling in order to be able to give them their best lives.'
Washington Post
27-05-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Do you know your dog at all?
In today's edition: This past weekend, Post Opinions published one of the most disconcerting pronouncements I've encountered in my near-decade working here: You might not know your dog as well as you think you do. Clive D.L. Wynne and Holly Molinaro are researchers at Arizona State University; the very good, very handsome Oliver is Molinaro's dog. Oliver is also the star of the researchers' study, in which they made videos of him responding either happily or unhappily to various stimuli.
Washington Post
26-05-2025
- Science
- Washington Post
Humans believe they understand their dogs. Our research gave us pause.
Oliver, one of the researcher's dogs, is seen on a black background, as part of an experiment. (Holly Molinaro) Dog owners don't understand their pet's emotions as well as they think they do. Clive D.L. Wynne is a professor of psychology and director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University. Holly Molinaro has recently completed her PhD at Arizona State. Most of us have powerful intuitions about how our dog is feeling — starting with that flag attached to the rear end, the tail. Tail wagging: dog happy. Tail tucked: dog sad or scared. And yet the scientific literature is surprisingly quiet about whether we are actually good at reading a dog's emotions. If people are going to care for dogs, they need to know how their pet is really feeling — so we studied just how well they understand dogs' emotions. Our work started during the pandemic with one of us, Clive, in Arizona and the other, Holly, in Connecticut. As we struggled to master Zoom, we realized that manipulating video could help us investigate this question. First, Holly filmed her dog Oliver playing with her father in several situations. Some positive, like giving him a treat … ... and some negative, like showing his nemesis, Saffron. Holly then edited the videos, so they showed only Oliver against a black backdrop. The videos were shown to hundreds of people who were asked how Oliver was feeling. A key finding was that people couldn't say how Oliver was feeling without any context. Holly filmed her (now much-missed) dog Oliver playing with her father, Rich. Some of the time Rich set up situations that would be considered positive; such as playing with Oliver, showing him his leash or giving him a treat. Rich also created negative situations, such as showing Oliver his nemesis in the house, Saffron the cat. Holly filmed everything, and then, just as Zoom makes it possible to obscure the background, she edited the videos so that viewers only saw Oliver against a black backdrop. We then showed 400 people these videos and asked them how Oliver was feeling. First, we showed just Oliver on the black background, and then we let people see the same videos with the full context: Oliver, Rich and anything Rich had with him — like a treat or Saffron. No surprise, when given full context, an overwhelming majority of people rated Oliver as happy in positive situations and less happy in negative ones. But in videos without contextual information — no Rich, no leash, no Saffron or anything else — they couldn't tell us how Oliver was feeling. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement This was a shock. Surely people could tell a happy dog from an unhappy one? We delved deeper. Since context seemed so important, what if the context was … wrong? Holly and her dad (and Oliver!) went back to work. Holly made movies of Rich and Oliver in different scenarios and manipulated some videos to make it appear that Oliver was playing with Rich when the unedited footage was actually of Oliver being reprimanded. In others, Oliver appeared to be responding to a reprimand, when in reality he had been shown his leash which promised a fun walk. We sent this second survey to 500 people and found that when they saw Rich doing something fun, such as offering Oliver a treat, they responded consistently that Oliver was feeling good, regardless of whether the footage they saw was of Oliver actually reacting to a positive or a negative situation. When people saw Rich doing something a little mean to Oliver, they thought the dog was more sad and anxious, regardless of what Oliver was actually reacting to. Our participants rated how Oliver was feeling based solely on what Rich was doing. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement You might think, 'Okay, well, that's someone else's dog. I surely know my own dog the best.' Holly showed her dad the edited videos as well. When Rich watched, even he was stumped as to what his dog was really feeling. 'Oh, that video was definitely the one where I showed Oliver some cheese. He loves cheese!' 'Actually, no, Dad. That is the one where he is being shown the cat.' 'Well, then — ' So what is going on here? Are we truly just terrible at understanding if our dog is happy or not? Can you guess Oliver's emotion? Happy Sad The owner is playing with Oliver, asking him to roll over. Happy Sad Oliver is being reprimanded, with the owner pointing a finger at him. Happy Sad Oliver is facing an enemy – a cat named Saffron. A pair of studies in Italy a decade ago helps fill out this picture. A team at the Universities of Bari and Trieste put dogs one by one in a wooden box with cameras above them and a window in front. The cameras were trained on the dogs' wagging tails while the researchers presented things to look at through the window. The researchers showed the dogs their owner, an unfamiliar person and an unfamiliar dog. The dogs showed a strong, consistent bias to wag their tails to the right when shown their owner or an unfamiliar human but a left bias toward the unfamiliar dog, indicating that dogs' wagging tails show their emotional state not simply by how much they wag them but also the side of the body they wag their tails toward. This likely is connected to how the left side of the brain is more specialized for approach and the right side for withdrawal. In the dog these signals cross over on their way from brain to tail, leading to more rightward wagging for something the dog would like to approach and more leftward wagging for something it would rather retreat from. This is a striking finding, because in all the millennia people have been watching dogs and writing about them, nobody had ever noticed that the direction a tail wags makes any difference. While humans may be blind to this aspect of emotional expression in dogs, our canine friends certainly notice. In a follow-up study, the researchers connected dogs to heart rate monitors and showed them videos of other dogs wagging their tails. If the dogs saw a left-wagging tail, their heart rate revealed they were more anxious than when they watched a right-wagging tail. People and dogs have been living together for more than 15,000 years. In that time, what have we learned? Our study along with the research from Italy, shows that, despite intense intuitions, people are poor at recognizing the emotional state of dogs. Instead, we look at everything around the dog to guess what our pet must be feeling but fail to look closely at the animal itself. This might not seem so surprising. After all, we don't have tails to wag, and we don't sniff our friends' backsides to learn how they're feeling. But it's crucial to the success of our lives together because the world we share with our dogs has changed dramatically over recent decades. Our dogs no longer live in kennels in the backyard, as their great-grandparents did. More than three-quarters of dogs in America today curl up each night in bed with people who consider them family members. Highly trained hounds console patients in hospitals, and there are even churches that involve dogs as part of their ministry. This increased intimacy requires us to accurately gauge our dogs' moods. Story continues below advertisement Advertisement Meanwhile, at the other end of the leash, several studies have shown that dogs are remarkably good at recognizing human emotional expressions. They can tell what emotion a human face is showing or respond with empathetic concern to a weeping person. Where our comprehension of dogs' emotions is so weak, their understanding of us is remarkably strong. We need to confront our biases and be more modest in our assessment of canine emotions. We have to recognize that it isn't easy to know how a dog is feeling, but with careful attention to each individual dog we might be able to learn what their happiness looks like. Post Opinions wants to know: How did your relationship with your dog evolve over time? Share your responses and they might be published as letters to the editor.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
What Your Dog's "Happy Face" Really Means
Life with a dog is full of joyful, if sometimes baffling, two-way conversations — and as their companions and caregivers, we know when they're happy and sad. Well, perhaps not it seems. According to new research, we might be misinterpreting what our dogs are really feeling. A study from Arizona State University (ASU) reveals that humans often misunderstand their dogs' emotions, largely because we judge their mood based on external context rather than their actual behavior. In their paper published in Anthrozoös, researchers Holly Molinaro and Clive Wynne found that we project human emotions onto our pets, which can mean we misread them. "People do not look at what the dog is doing," Holly, an ASU PhD student in psychology and animal welfare scientist, explains. "Instead, they look at the situation surrounding the dog and base their emotional perception off that." To test this, the researchers ran two experiments. First, they showed people videos of dogs in different situations — some happy (treat time or a walk), some not so happy (mild telling off). Some people saw the full context of what was happening in the video, while others only saw the dog, with no background information. In the second, they edited the videos so that a dog filmed in a happy moment looked like they were in a negative one, and vice versa. The result? People still judged the situation rather than the dog's actual behavior. "Our dogs are trying to communicate with us, but we humans seem determined to look at everything except the poor pooch himself," says Clive, a psychology professor specializing in canine behavior. "You see a dog getting a treat, you assume he must be feeling good. You see a dog getting yelled at; you assume he's feeling bad. These assumptions of how you think the dog is feeling have nothing to do with the dog's behavior or emotional cues." Another striking example was a dog reacting to a vacuum cleaner. "In our study, when people saw a video of a dog apparently reacting to a vacuum cleaner, everyone said the dog was feeling bad and agitated," Holly continues. "But when they saw a video of the dog doing the exact same thing, but this time appearing to react to seeing his leash, everyone reported that the dog was feeling happy and calm. People were not judging a dog's emotions based on the dog's behavior, but on the situation the dog was in." It's not just the surroundings tripping us up — we also have a habit of seeing our own emotions in our dogs. "I have always found this idea that dogs and humans must have the same emotions to be very biased and without any real scientific proof to back it up," Holly says. So, what's the solution? Holly suggests dog owners take a step back. "The first step is just to be aware that we are not that good at reading dogs' emotions," she says. "We need to be humbler in our understanding of our dogs." She adds that every dog is unique. "Really pay attention to your own dog's cues and behaviors." That guilty look after you catch them trying to eat an extra treat — guilt or nervousness about getting told off? A little awareness goes a long way in strengthening our connection with our four-legged friends. You Might Also Like 70 Impressive Tiny Houses That Maximize Function and Style 30+ Paint Colors That Will Instantly Transform Your Kitchen
