Dogs are good at reading our moods but we're 'shocking' at reading theirs, study finds
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Researchers say they have proved that dogs have better social skills than their human owners.
What's more, they have a much greater emotional intelligence than we give them credit for.
The findings have come from the University College London and will form part of the upcoming Royal Institute Christmas Lectures being given by Sophie Scott, a professor of neuroscience at University College London.
According to Professor Scott, our tendency to view dogs and other pets like we would a child means we also underestimate them.
Meanwhile, dogs will view their owner in the same way as a wolf pack would view the alpha male.
(Image: REX/Shutterstock)
"There was a study this year that showed that dogs don't like being hugged," Professor Scott told The Times .
"You look at photographs of dogs being hugged by people and the dogs show objective signs of distress.
"The dogs really like being with their owners, they want to be with their owners, but they don't want to be held. It provokes anxiety in them: as an animal, they want to be able to move freely.
"And pretty much everyone's reaction to this was: well, I don't think that's my dog. It was a very good example of this asymmetry.
"Dogs are great at reading us but we are pretty shocking at reading them."
Professor Scott is set to elaborate on her findings during the three lectures that will be shown on television later this month.
The lectures explore a different theme each December and have taken place every year since 1825 - stopping only from 1939 to 1942.
This year they will examine how much human communication has in common with other animals that live in groups.
It will include the rise of emoji and how we use them to talk to each other on social media.
Professor Scott said: 'We know from pre-emoji studies that people talk more, are happiest afterwards and laugh most if they have a face-to-face conversation.
"Even if the other person is on a screen, if you can see and hear that person you get more bang for your buck from that interaction.
"It drops down as soon as you're just on the phone so there's no face, and it drops down again if you go to text-based interactions because you lose all that social information.
"So it will be interesting to see if in a few years, when people are using emojis for these sorts of interactions more commonly, will that improve the status of text-based interactions?
"Will it make you happier? We don't know that yet."
The Christmas Lectures will be broadcast on BBC Four at 8pm on December 26, 27 and 28.