Cats and Slow-Blink Stimuli

Humans are essential social partners for the animals they keep as pets. Research has shown that numerous domesticated animals engage in interspecies communication with their human counterparts. Not only do these animals respond to social signals from humans, but they also produce their own signals designed to communicate important social information. Horses, pigs, goats, and dogs have demonstrated the ability to differentiate between human emotions and adjust their behaviour in response to human cues. In dogs, gazing behaviour initiated by humans and reciprocated by the dog is thought to be a type of referential and intentional communication.