I’ve noticed that when I take my furry friend, Ruby, to the dog park, she tends to show off a little. Like at home, she’s usually curled up in her bed under my desk or softly growling while stomping her tiny little feet because I didn’t give her an adequate amount of wet food. It’s both adorable and intimidating. 

But at the dog park, she's the belle of the ball. She’s jumping, rolling around, and chasing new friends. Now, I always assumed it was for the benefit of the other dogs there. But it seems like she was being super social to make me happy. What an angel -- I don’t know what I did to deserve her. 

 According to Martha Stewart magazine, a recent study released in Animal Cognition shows that pups will exhibit more playful behavior if their owner is watching them. The publication noted that there’s a possibility that  “they are playing for [our] entertainment.” Again, how thoughtful is that!

The study, which took place over “several days,” had a relatively small sample size with ten groups of two dogs, as reported by Phys.org. Each pair “had lived together for at least six months.” The subjects were observed by the researchers “under three conditions,”. In said conditions,  “the owner was absent…, present but ignoring [the dog]” or “the owner was present and showering them with attention in the form of verbal praise and petting.” 

"We found overall that the availability of owner attention did in fact facilitate play," noted Lindsay Mehrkam, lead author and an assistant psychology professor at Monmouth University.

The paper’s co-author, Clive Wynne, shared similar sentiments, stating, 

"It's really quite striking that dogs who have the chance to play with each other whenever they want to, nonetheless are much more likely to get up off their butts and start playing when a person is just paying attention to them.”

Have you noticed that your pup is more social when you are actively praising them? Let us know in the comments below!