The construction of this experiment is really flawed. A dog takes a while to really bond with a human, and they will bond to someone who takes them in, without any consideration of the deceptiveness or truthfulness of the human.
In the latest experiments, scientists assigned 24 dogs of various breeds to deceptive and trustworthy individuals. In a park, the animals were placed near a tree, while, at some distance away, two buckets were brought in. One contained food and the other did not. The deceptive humans pointed at the empty bucket when calling their dog, while the trustworthy ones always pointed at the full bucket. Dogs assigned to helpful humans obeyed them 78 to 96 percent of the time, with unwaivering faith. The dogs appointed to deceiving researchers showed a decline in faith over some 225 trials, to 53 to 60 percent.
Other similar experiments were conducted by the same team, but this time replacing humans, as the fear existed that dogs began to associate them with a lack or presence of food, respectively. It could not be established sufficiently firmly that dogs could read their handlers' minds, but only that they managed to learn a Pavlov type of reflex. Some critics argue, however, that the new study does “not take into account (…) the social world of the species,” believing that dogs reared near humans may subordinate their food-searching instinct to their faith to the master.
via Dogs Cannot Read Owners’ Minds, Study Shows – Despite millennia of domestication – Softpedia.
