Dogs are man’s best friend, but it turns out that they only like certain people. They are excellent judges of character according to studies, and are sometimes immediately suspicious of a person the minute they meet them. Whether that judgement of character is spot on or not is still up to debate, but there are many people that won’t even consider trusting a person that their dog doesn’t like.

But studies have shown that what your dog thinks about a person may be more reliable than you may have thought. We all know that dogs will follow the pointing finger of someone.

However, studies show that dogs also take into consideration how reliable the person is that is doing the pointing. The study wanted to determine if a dog will change their behavior based on whether they trust the person or not.

Several rounds were done where a person would point at a container with a treat in it or one that was empty. In both cases the dog would run to the container after the human pointed at it. However, if a person had consistently been directed to a container without a treat, the dog would eventually stop listening. However, they would maintain their trust in the scientist who always pointed to the treat filled container.

Another study proved that a dog can also depict when one human is being rude to another. In the study, a dog owner asked two researchers for assistance opening a jar. One researcher would help and the other would refuse.

The dog would watch the interaction, and when it was over, both researchers would both offer the dog a treat. What they discovered that the dog was more likely to accept the treat from the researcher who had been helpful.

So what this means is that a dog can not only tell how trustworthy a person is, but they also understand the social norms that are generally accepted by people and will avoid people who are rude to their owners.

Dogs can also tell the difference between facial features that are happy or angry. They are very perceptive and will pick up on human gestures and social clues.

Researchers say that when it comes to trusting your dog’s opinion of a person, it might actually be a good strategy. If you won’t believe them completely, at least consider the fact that your dog might be seeing something that you don’t.

Check out the video below to learn more about the studies and be sure to share this with your family and friends. I had a dog once that didn’t like my boyfriend. Turns out she was a better judge of character than I was!