What Are Dogs Reading in Human Gestures Like the Open Palm?
Psychology Today | 30.08.2026 20:01
How do dogs understand human gestures? Research cautions us that simple answers to questions like these can be misleading, For this and other reasons I was pleased to read a recent paper by anthrozoologist Sindhoor Pangel titled, "The open palm gesture in human–dog communication: An exploratory synthesis, Human–Animal Interactions." In it, she stresses that perhaps we should move from asking, “Can the dog decode my gesture?” to “What happens to the dog when I make this gesture and how does this impact our relationship?"
