Contagious Yawning in Dogs: A Mysterious Connection
Is it true that human yawns are contagious to dogs?
Some dog owners swear that when they yawn, their dog does, too.
Contagious yawning is a well-known phenomenon among humans — when we see, hear or sometimes even think about yawning, many of us yawn. And research shows that some of our canine companions can experience it, too.
Unlike wolves, which have been shown to catch yawns from one another, dogs are more likely to yawn in response to humans, research shows. One study showed that dogs yawn even when they hear a recording of humans yawning.
Contagious yawning in dogs is believed to be elicited by seeing or hearing a human yawn, though the precise reason we yawn when someone else does is not well understood in humans or animals.
What else you should know:
Studying dog yawns is challenging because a dog might yawn for reasons that have nothing to do with seeing a human yawn — such as spontaneous yawning.
Yawning in dogs also can be a sign of stress, which may be heightened during laboratory experiments in which the canines are being videotaped to see whether they will yawn.
And, as with humans, some dogs may simply yawn more or less than other dogs.
Dogs can contagiously yawn when they see or hear humans yawn, research shows, but there is no scientific consensus on what it means.
