New research suggests why dogs are empathetic

It is thought that dogs can empathise with all humans - even those they don't know - according to a study published in the Animal Cognition journal.

The experiments showed empathy towards humans from the majority of dogs. For example when people pretended to cry, dogs would usually offer comfort by licking and nuzzling them.

Colleagues from the Department of Psychology at the University of London Goldsmiths College, Deborah Custance and Jennifer Mayer, used 18 pet dogs of different ages and breeds for their study. The humans were both owners and strangers.

Another recent study, published in PLoS ONE showed that dogs play very close attention to human signals. This study looked at their brain activity when watching people.

According to the publications, it is possible that the rewards dogs receive when approaching distressed humans has been hardwired into the species during their domestication. For this reason, dog are now "in tune" with us.

Custance said: "I think there is good reason to suspect dogs would be more sensitive to human emotion than other species. We have selectively bred them to act as our companions."

Custance and Mayer hope to next study how empathetic wolves may be.