Yes, is the answer to the question in the title and that assessment comes from scientific studies which have shown that cats and dogs can read humans through their body language and voice and from personal experience and anecdotal evidence. The video on this page is an example. A good one and a good person. Although as humans are very good at deception, they can deceive cats and dogs into believing they are friendly when their intentions are hostile. That’s how cat thieves take cats from the street. Cats are fooled by dishonest and malicious people.
And dogs can be so attached to their human ‘caregiver’ because they look to the ‘alpha dog’ (the owner) for leadership that they can allow themselves to be abused beyond all reason. I’ve seen lots of that on the internet. That slavish following by dogs allows abusers to abuse them which is a total breach of trust and a fatal breakdown in the dog-to-human relationship. It is contrary to the reason for dog domestication.
The video shows a female dog mothering her puppies in a harsh human environment where she was clearly struggling to survive. We see the same for cats on urban streets and it is distressing. She understands as the tweet states that the intentions of the human are good and allows the person to take her puppies. It all pans out well for the dog. She made the correct call. There is lots of tenderness in the video. There are many good people out there helping others less fortunate than themselves.
As I have written on this topic before I’ll leave you with three links to further articles which supports what I’ve said in the first paragraph. I’d welcome your personal experiences on the topic. I am sure that you have experienced your cat or dog responding positively or negatively to you depending on your mood, body language and behaviour. Please share!
Domestic cats recognise through sight and sound certain human emotions and respond
RELATED: Do cats understand human emotions?
