Dogs feel the suffering of human beings?

Dogs feel the suffering of human beings, especially those who recognize as their owners? Karine Silva and Liliana Sousa, two researchers from the Department of Behavioral Sciences at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences Abel Salazar, Porto, consider that yes, although there are few studies that emphasize experimental and scientific discussion on the subject. The two scientists published a reflection on the subject in this month's issue of the journal of the Royal Society." Empathy is a complex mechanism that begins the simple emotional contagion and goes to some reflection on the emotional state of others and an emotional connection to each other," he explained, Karine Silva. According to some studies , the level of empathy depends on the size of the brain of the individual. In humans, for example, at nine months, the child tends to have a comfort each other spontaneously, ie without any consideration of what the other person is feeling." Concern friendly only begins from the four years," explains Karine Silva. Experiments with mice have shown that these will react to the pain experienced by individuals of the same species that are closed in a cage, but not the felt by humans. Tests conducted with chimpanzees who grew up in contact with the man revealed that these comfort and help their peers in distress , but also humans. The question now arises is related to other species that live close to humans, such as dog. The two researchers believe that "there is a likelihood of the dog using the two cognitive faculties to comfort the human being." The reasons are several: the fact that domestic dogs descended from the wolf, highly social animals; biological changes occurred during the domestication process, which began about 10,000 years, and the diversity of existing breeds. Studies indicate that even untrained dogs are sensitive to human emergencies and may react to these in order to help those who are suffering. However, do not understand the nature of the emergency, or what should be done to get help. One of the hypotheses of explanation relates to the fact that the dog smell the feronomas produced by a person in distress.