New study shows puppies do not 'catch' yawns

A study by researchers from Lund University in Sweden has found that, though older dogs yawn contagiously, puppies do not.

Researchers discovered that puppies do not pick up on human yawns at first, but they develop susceptibility to "catch" yawns as they get older, which is the same in humans.

The study, which has been published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition, showed that it is usually around seven months when a puppy begins to yawn after a human.

The research involved 35 dogs in Denmark aged between four-14 months old, which played and cuddled humans who yawned from time-to-time. The results were that only dogs above a certain age would repeat the yawns.

Previous research has shown that contagious yawning in humans, adult chimpanzees, baboons and dogs is not just a sign of sleepiness or boredom, but also a measure of empathy, where the animal mimics the emotional responses of others.

This is the first time the development of contagious yawning has been studied in a species other than humans.