Golden Retriever puppy (Photo By Golden Trvs Gol twister – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18521767)

Dear Readers, anyone who has ever owned a dog knows that they will often let you know when they want something (cocked head, raised paw, that thing they do with their eyebrows), but it is interesting that puppies as young as six weeks old will come and ask humans for help when confronted with something complicated or frightening. To see how this worked, scientist Stephanie Riemer at The University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna worked with 83 puppies, aged between 41 and 52 days, and of eight different breeds. All  the dogs were raised by small-scale breeders in their homes, which meant that they were very familiar with humans from birth.

Riemer (who was familiar to all the puppies, and what a wonderful job that must be) took the dogs into an unfamiliar room in their houses, and presented them with either an ‘impossible’ task (in this case, an upside-down plastic container with food inside, but which was glued to the floor) or a slightly scary toy. She then watched to see if the puppies looked at the toy/cup and then at a human within two seconds – this is how human babies try to let their caregivers know what they want, although they are generally ten months old when they start this behaviour. 69 percent of the puppies did this when confronted with the scary toy, and 46 percent did it with the upturned cup. Often the puppies would look at the toy/cup, then at the human, and then back at the toy/cup, as if trying to reinforce exactly what they wanted help with, and often accompanied this routine with whimpering. Could the message be any clearer?

The puppies could be asking for help from the humans, seeking reassurance, or asking for additional information, but whatever they’re doing, this will come as no surprise to dog owners (although I was surprised at how early the behaviour starts). I’m sure we’ve all got stories about how our dogs managed to tell us something,

However, how about cats? Many of the cats I’ve fostered or ‘owned’ would come to let me know that something wasn’t right – on one occasion my cats Bonnie and Clyde wouldn’t leave me alone until I went to look in the kitchen and found that the washing machine was blocked and the floor was awash with water. My dear recently-departed Willow would sometimes lead me to where I’d absent-mindedly left an open umbrella  which was frightening her when she wanted to use her litter tray.

And does it even stop there? My grandmother had a tortoise that would bang on the garden door with his shell when he wanted to go in or out.

The animals that live with us are usually totally dependent on humans for food, shelter, medical care and all those intangible things – love, reassurance, education in what to do and what not to do. No wonder they try to find ways to tell us what they need, or what they’re frightened of, or to ask us what the hell is going on. Dogs are the absolute masters and mistresses of getting their message across, with their expressive faces and attunement to our moods and habits, but I wonder what we miss with our cats, let alone our rabbits or other animals. Still, our relationships can be so much richer if we’re able to pay attention and try to understand why on earth the animals we share our homes with are doing what they do.

I’d be willing to bet that we’ve all got stories about animals trying to tell us ‘stuff’, so share away! I’m ready to be amazed.

You can read the whole article in New Scientist here, and the research paper is here.