Can dogs tell when you're lying to them?

Dogs are proven to be intelligent and can learn several tricks, but can they tell if you are lying to them?

A new study has been looking into whether dogs can tell if they are being lied to or not.

The research from the University of Vienna studied the actions of 260 dogs who took part in the same experiment where they had to find food in one of two buckets.

Researchers found that some dogs were able to ignore advice given to them by humans showing them the wrong place to find a treat.

The ability of the dogs to find the treat and ignore the false advice varied depending on the breed and age of the animal, with younger dogs more likely to follow the advice of humans even if it was wrong.

So what do you think, does your dog know when you are telling them a fib or do they believe everything you say? Let us know in the comments.

How did they do the research?

The dogs were shown a treat being hidden in one of two bowls, then a human they didn't know pointed at the correct bowl so they could get the treat.

In the next stage of the experiment the dogs and first human would watch a second human switch the treat from one bowl to another before the human encouraged the dog to find the treat by pointing at one of the buckets.

Researchers then looked at how the dogs reacted in the different situations.

Would they follow the human's advice even if they knew it was wrong?

A border collie was one of the breeds that took part in the study

Half the studied dogs ignored the human's advice when they saw them pointing to the wrong bowl, which the study suggests shows they knew when they were being lied to.

"Our study provides the first experimental evidence that dogs distinguish between a true and a false belief condition in a change-of-location task," the scientists wrote in the study.

Your dog may be a little suspicious next time you say there are no treats left!

Scientists say that more research is needed to really understand whether dogs understand the concept of true and false beliefs but that it is an exciting idea to be testing.

So what do you think? Let us know in the comments below.