Can dogs lie or deceive us?

Many people say that they prefer dogs over men, precisely because of their fidelity. Dogs are said to be our best friends and were believed to be unable to lie. But researchers at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, have shown that reality can be a little more painful ...

The idea was to try to understand if animals could fool us for their own benefit. For this, the scientist Marianne Heberlin analyzed the behavior of 27 dogs. They were trained by two women who behaved differently: one was more generous and gave canine snacks, while the other was more selfish and did not deliver the sausages she held.

After a while of training, it was easy to see that the dogs would go after the one they liked best - as much as she carried the biscuits, less preferred by them, than the sausages they loved.

Then three boxes were placed in front of the dogs: one empty, one with sausage and the third with snack. They were all closed, and the idea was to have them take one of the women to give them their favorite food. About 80 percent of the time, the dogs addressed the woman who had been generous in the previous experiment.

According to the researchers, dogs should think, "Why should I tell the selfish person in which box the favorite food was if I couldn't get it?" This would be a way to take advantage of people's behavior by caring only for those who bring them the most benefit. So, do you agree?