A puppy with a familiar and unfamiliar experimenter in a study that found that while dogs can ‘catch’ yawns from humans, puppies younger than seven months ar…
Contagious yawning in domestic dog puppies (Canis lupus familiaris): the effect of ontogeny and emotional closeness on low-level imitation in dogs
Elainie Alenkær Madsen and Tomas Persson
“Contagious yawning is a well-documented phenomenon in humans and has recently attracted much attention from developmental and comparative sciences. The function, development and underlying mechanisms of the phenomenon, however, remain largely unclear. Contagious yawning has been demonstrated in dogs and several non-human primate species, and theoretically and empirically associated with empathy in humans and non-human primates.”
