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Dogs are famously good at reading human body language, following human gaze and stealing human food. But not all humans are equal in the eyes of Canis familiaris.

Paolo Mongillo and his colleagues at the University of Padua in Italy investigated the attention dogs paid to their owners and to strangers. Each dog watched as its owner and a stranger walked back and forth across a test room in opposite directions, popping in and out of two doors.

Not surprisingly, the dogs kept their eyes on their owners most of the time, and stared at the doors they had gone through. At least, young dogs did. Dogs over the age of seven didn't stare at the door their owners had gone through with the same frequency, perhaps indicating some cognitive decline, or that they have learned over the years that their owners always come back in the end.

Anim. Behav. 80, 1057–1063 (2010)