Yawning And Your Dog.

source: in 3rd paragraph, 2nd sentence-Dog Fancy quote. The rest is from the article I read and put into my own words and my interpretation of the story.

I was reading my Dog Fancy magazine the other day and found a super interesting article. It was about yawning, yes yawning. You know how when someone yawns around you, you yawn? It is called contagious yawning.

This is an involuntary reaction, triggered by seeing others do it. Previously, it was thought to be only a human reaction, and then was studied in Chimpanzees. Which is feasible, seeing how closely related to the primates we are. ( I am sure this will spark a debate, but I am only going on the scientific facts.)

In the Aug. issue of Biology letters, Atsuchi Senju and his colleagues suggest that this phenomenon is not specific to primate species. "Dogs possess the capacity for a rudimentary form of empathy." A study was done with 29 dogs, including the Labrador Retriever, Doberman and Yorkies. They watched a person perform a large yawn and it caused 72% of them to yawn But, when the control group watched a person just open their mouth, none of the dogs yawned.

And, it was ruled out that the yawns were not caused by stress from unfamiliar surroundings or the recording equipment.