Yale researchers used three cognitive tests to confirm that dogs really do think like little humans.
A group of hundreds of volunteer dogs were tested first by watching two puppet show scenes. In the first scene a rat puppet assists a hedgehog puppet up a hill. The next scene features the same rat puppet knocking the hedgehog puppet down.
By the end of the two shows most of the dogs appeared dubious of the rat character.
"Similar studies have been done with human infants, and what we find is that infants don't like the guy who was mean," Laurie Santos, director of the Yale Canine Cognition Center, told CBS Los Angeles. "So, we're doing the same thing with dogs to try and see if dogs morally evaluate, the way humans do."
The second test involved a person reading a book to the dog. After a few moments of reading the person puts down the book and another person comes in and takes the book.
This test proved that dogs can tell when something goes on and that they will alert their human when they sense a problem, reported CBS Lost Angeles.
The third and last test involved a person relaxing with a dog before another person introduced a new object into the room.
This test showed that dogs can have the same interests as humans.
"The most surprising thing so far is how many of our intuitions about dogs are right," Yale junior Rebecca Spaulding told CBS Los Angeles. "That dogs have feelings and dogs want to communicate with us."
