FEMALE DOGS JUDGE MORE THAN MALE DOGS STUDY FINDS!
Written by: Grace Umeadi
Published on: March 11, 2025
Remember the ancient folklore that portrayed dogs as man's best friend? With terms like "unconditionally loyal companions” and “intelligent and teachable”, While all of those are facts, we may want to rethink the “unconditionally loyal” part. It can't be the first time you suspected your furry little friend of being all jolly with you because of “what you bring to the table”
Frankly, your suspicions are not unfounded. Dogs do judge us, and apparently, how strongly depends on the gender. Yes, female dogs judge us more than the males. These creatures are constantly evaluating our competence, in certain areas. Sounds familiar?
A Kyoto University Study
Beyond any one person's perspective, researchers started looking deeper into dogs' ability to assess human performance and competence with certain tasks. A Kyoto University Study in Japan tested several pet dogs in a special experiment to gain more insight into this behaviour.
The study not only found that dogs do judge but that the females were doing a better job. In perspective, they found dogs were more interested and paid more attention to humans who performed better at certain tasks than those who struggled.
In the experiment, dogs watched two people try to open treat containers where one was successful and one wasn't. It turns out that these jolly creatures paid more attention to the competent individual, especially when it involved food. This behaviour was a pattern, suggesting they can evaluate human skill levels.
The Females Were More Judgemental
From the behavioural pattern and frequency, female dogs turned out to be most judgemental, much preferring the competent humans. Lynette A. Hart, an Anthrozoology professor, attributes this to female dogs' superior alternativeness to humans as well as their superior focus and trainability.
These findings were also supported by Hitomi Chijiiwa et al, after investigating how “female dogs evaluate the level of competence in humans”.
So what does the human make of this?
Ultimately, these findings, no matter how solid, aren't enough to distort the dynamics humans have with their pet dogs. In essence, there is no cause for concern if you are looking at the big picture. Your little friend is not judging your entire existence, just how well you can perform tasks that pertain to them.
At this point, it is relatively unclear if this “competence evaluation” ability of theirs in any way affects their core loyalty or behaviour towards humans in general.
One thing is for sure, their ability to recognize a more competent and a less competent human at certain tasks will influence certain behaviour around such persons. To what extent is largely uncertain and may not be entirely noticeable. In any case, we should be paying some more attention to our furry friends, when attending to their core needs.
