Your dog even watches the way you blink

However, this does not mean that the dog is consciously copying its owner. Scientists have not found that dogs regularly blink immediately after a person does.

Details

Researchers from the University of Parma tested 35 domestic dogs. Each dog was shown a video of its owner, an unfamiliar man and an unfamiliar woman.

In one clip, the people blinked roughly once every three seconds; in the other, they looked straight ahead without blinking. The dogs’ behaviour was recorded and analysed frame by frame.

When watching people who were blinking, the dogs themselves blinked noticeably more often. Furthermore, the reaction was stronger towards their owners than towards strangers.

The researchers also checked separately whether the dog blinked within 1.5 seconds of a person blinking. They found no such precise synchronisation.

Therefore, the result cannot be reduced to simple imitation along the lines of ‘the owner blinked – the dog followed suit’.

Why this is important

Blinking is usually considered a physiological response necessary for moistening and protecting the eyes. However, new research shows that in dogs, its frequency also depends on the social situation.

The authors suggest that changes in blinking may be linked to attention, automatic mimicry or other mechanisms of communication between dogs and humans.

It is not yet known whether blinking is used as an intentional signal. The study merely shows that dogs are sensitive to this facial movement and to the specific person standing in front of them.

Source

Study:“Blinking together: the modulation of eye blinking in dog–human social contexts”.

Authors: Chiara Canori, Elisa Biffi, Tiziano Travain, Paola Valsecchi and co-authors.

The experiment involved 35 pet dogs.

Journal: Royal Society Open Science, 2026.