Does a Dog Recognize Its Mother? A Surprising Insight!

Contrary to popular belief, the reality is quite different! Professor Peter Hepper from the School of Psychology at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland conducted an experiment that sheds light on this matter.

The experiment involved a variety of young dogs, including Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, and German Shepherds, all aged between 4 and 6 weeks.

To determine if the puppies could recognize their mothers, researchers placed the mother dog and another female of the same age and breed in separate rooms. They then recorded which room the puppies would prefer to visit and how long they would linger at the doors of each room.

The results were striking: an astonishing 84% of the puppies recognized their mothers and chose to spend more time at the entrance of their mother's room.

The second experiment presented a more challenging scenario for the puppies. The researchers placed the test puppies among a group of other puppies of the same age and breed, as well as their own siblings. Surprisingly, 67% of the puppies showed a clear preference for spending time with their siblings.

Professor Hepper explained that this behavior is a yettobedeciphered olfactory response. To validate the accuracy of these experiments, Professor Hepper conducted a specific test: he placed a towel in the mother dog's den and, two days later, used this towel to test the puppies against other towels from different dens.

The objective was to see if the puppies could distinguish their mother's scent. In this test, 82% of the puppies correctly chose the towel from their mother's den.

Could a mother dog recognize her own puppies? Professor Hepper pondered this question as well. After much effort, he located a group of dogs around 2 years old that had been separated from their mothers at 8 weeks of age and had not seen them since. He repeated the series of experiments, with the mothers as the subjects this time, to see if they could identify their offspring.

The results were consistent with expectations: 78% of the mothers spent more time sniffing towels that contained the scent of their own offspring.

What about adult dogs? To ensure the accuracy of the experiment, Professor Hepper selected a group of adult dogs of the same breed and age as their mothers. The results were nearly identical: 76% of the adult dogs showed a preference for towels that carried the scent of their mothers, with the added rigorous condition that these adult dogs had not seen their mothers since they were 8 weeks old.

Clearly, Professor Hepper's experiments have transformed our understanding of dogs. Some might ask, "If they know it's their mother, why do some sons still mate with her?"

It's important not to apply human logic to dogs. Humans understand that incest is morally wrong, but dogs do not possess moral values.