A new study has found that dogs really are our best friend as they feel our fatigue. The research says that when your dog sees you yawn they will feel your exhaustion and often respond by yawning with you.

Japan-based researchers studied 25 dogs and found they are more likely to imitate yawns when they came from their owners, rather than strangers.

And the majority that did not react to fake yawns suggests the pups could even tell when their owners were genuinely tired and when they are just faking.

'Contagious yawning' as its known - has been shown to have a connection with the level of social attachment in several species.

A chart of the different dog species used

"The occurrence of yawn contagion was significantly higher during the yawning condition than during the control mouth movements" says the PLOS research article.

"Furthermore, the dogs yawned more frequently when watching the familiar model than the unfamiliar one demonstrating that the contagiousness of yawning in dogs correlated with the level of emotional proximity" it adds.

It also says that the heart rate of the dogs did not change during this, suggesting the contagious yawning is not related to any stress.