DOGS yawn along with their owners, revealing a human-like ability to empathise, say scientists.

Everyone knows yawns can be contagious, but a new study shows how the irresistible impulse to yawn can even spread between humans and their dogs.

According to researchers this could be an indication of empathy - the capacity to identify with another person's emotional state - in man's best friend.

The Japanese team of scientists recruited 25 dogs and their owners for the study. Dogs watched their owner, or someone they did not know, yawn or mimic yawning mouth movements.

They were much more likely to yawn in response to their owner yawning than the actions of a stranger.

The dogs were also far more sensitive to genuine yawns, and yawned significantly less often after seeing fake movements.

One possible explanation for yawning is that it is a tension-releasing reaction to mild stress. But the fact that the dogs responded more to their owners' genuine yawns, and maintained a constant heartbeat, made this unlikely, said the researchers.

They wrote in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE: "Our findings are consistent with the view that contagious yawning.. may indicate that rudimentary forms of empathy could be present in domesticated dogs."