Do face coverings impact communication with your dog?

Posted on June 5, 2020
Dr. Valeri Farmer-Dougan said it seems like dogs pay more attention to our eyes than our mouths. (Neil Doyle/WJBC)

 

By Neil Doyle

NORMAL – Face coverings have become the new normal with the coronavirus outbreak, but what kind of impact do they have when communicating with your furry friend?

Dr. Valeri Farmer-Dougan is the director of the Canine Behavior and Cognition Laboratory (CBCL) at Illinois State University. She and a student conducted a study and found face coverings don’t have much of an impact – as long as your dog can see your eyes and you use a gesture.

“Maybe you pointed where you wanted them to go or pointed down for them to lay, they were at 100% accuracy,” Farmer-Dougan told WJBC’s Scott Miller. “If you weren’t using a gesture and just used a word, they were still about 70% accurate.”

“Now if you covered your eyes, they dropped down to about 40% accurate,” she said.

The reasoning – dogs seem to pay more attention to our eyes than our mouths.

Neil Doyle can be reached at [email protected]

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