Tokyo (AFP) - Dogs do not like people who are mean to their owners, Japanese researchers said Friday, and will refuse food offered by people who have snubbed their master. 
 
 The findings reveal that canines have the capacity to co-operate socially -- a characteristic found in a relatively small number of species, including humans and some other primates. 
 
 Researchers led by Kazuo Fujita, a professor of comparative cognition at Kyoto University, tested three groups of 18 dogs using role plays in which their owners needed to open a box. 
 
 In all three groups, the owner was accompanied by two people whom the dog did not know. 
 
 In the first group, the owner sought assistance from one of the other people, who actively refused to help. 
 
 In the second group, the owner asked for, and received, help from one person. In both groups, the third person was neutral and not involved in either helping or refusing to help. 
 
 View gallery Canines have the capacity to co-operate socially -- a characteristic found in a relatively small num … 
 
 Neither person interacted with the dog's owner in the control -- third -- group. 
 
 After watching the box-opening scene, the dog was offered food by the two unfamiliar people in the room. 
 
 Dogs that saw their owner being rebuffed were far more likely to choose food from the neutral observer, and to ignore the offer from the person who had refused to help, Fujita said. 
 
 Dogs whose owners were helped and dogs whose owners did not interact with either person showed no marked preference for accepting snacks from the strangers. 
 
 "We discovered for the first time that dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people regardless of their direct interest," Fujita said. 
 
 If the dogs were acting solely out of self-interest, there would be no differences among the groups, and a roughly equal number of animals would have accepted food from each person. 
 
 "This ability is one of key factors in building a highly collaborative society, and this study shows that dogs share that ability with humans," he said. 
 
 The trait is present in children from the age of about three, the research papers said. 
 
 Interestingly, noted Fujita, not all primates demonstrate this behaviour. 
 
 "There is a similar study that showed tufted capuchins (a monkey native to South America) have this ability, but there is no evidence that chimpanzees demonstrate a preference unless there is a direct benefit to them," he told AFP. 
 
 The study will appear in the science journal "Animal Behaviour" to be published later this month by Amsterdam-based Elsevier, he said. ||||| Imagine this scenario: You call your dog over for a belly rub, but there's a pile of dog treats next to him. Can he leave the tempting, tasty morsels for a little love from his favorite human? 
 
 Researchers didn't set up this exact scenario, but in a new study at Emory University in Atlanta, 15 dogs were given an owner-versus-treat option. The pets were already trained to lie calmly in a functional MRI machine. They had their brains scanned as they were shown objects they associated with rewards. The dogs had already learned that when they saw a toy car, for example, they would be given a piece of hot dog. When they saw a toy horse, their owner would pop in for a few effusive moments of "Good dog!" praise. When they saw a hair brush, nothing happened. 
 
 During the scans, the researchers looked at the ventral caudate, the area of the brain associated with decision-making, risk and reward. They found that of the 15 dogs, nine of them showed the same response to both of the toys associated with food and praise, four showed a greater level of brain activity for the one linked to the owner's praise, and just two showed a more active response for food over their owners' praise. 
 
 For the next part of the study, which was published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, researchers set up a simple Y-shaped maze in which the dogs had the choice of going down one branch of the maze to find a bowl with dog treats or going down the other path to find their owner. The dogs showed the same inclinations they showed in the scanner, with all but two having an equal or greater tendency to choose their owner over food. (The other two went right for the snacks every time.) 
 
 Researchers said the study findings might help owners train their pets, and might also identify dogs suited for work as service dogs. A dog that prefers praise, for example, might make a good therapy dog, while a dog that prefers treats might be better suited for a job that's more independent from humans, like a search and rescue dog. The researchers point out that there are some dogs that don't seem to have a clear preference for either praise or treats and those dogs may not be cut out for these specific working dog roles. 
 
 But the study does offer one basic takeaway for dog owners: A pat on the head and a belly rub are usually great ideas when working with your pet. 
 
 "More generally, our findings support the use of social praise as a reward in dog training," the researchers write. "For most dogs, social reinforcement is at least as effective as food – and probably healthier too."
– Your dog really may be your best friend, according to a new study out of Japan that highlights just how far canine loyalty can go. In a study to be published later this month in the journal Animal Behaviour, cognitive researchers at Kyoto University found that dogs will actually ignore people who snub their owners, even when food is being offered. It's a level of social cooperation seen so rarely in the animal kingdom that even among primates it's not exactly common, reports AFP. "This ability is one of [the] key factors in building a highly collaborative society, and this study shows that dogs share that ability with humans," lead researcher Kazuo Fujita said. The team tested three groups of 18 dogs—using breeds including golden retrievers and chihuahuas, and a range of ages, from seven months to 14 years, reports Quartz—who watched their owners try to open a box. Two strangers were always present. In the first group, the owner asked one stranger for help but was refused while the other remained neutral; in the second, the person being asked did help while the other remained neutral; and in the third control group, neither of the strangers interacted with the owner at all. Then in all instances, the strangers offered the dogs food. The dogs turned out to be willing to take food from anyone—except, of course, the strangers who refused to help with the box. Would your best friend have your back like that? (There's also evidence that dogs are cunning thieves.)