https://phys.org/news/2018-07-dog-bit.html

In a paper called Timmy's in the well: Empathy and prosocial helping in dogs, just published in the journal Learning & Behavior, researchers showed that dogs with strong bonds to their owners hurried to pushed through a door when they heard their person crying. The name of the paper pays homage to Lassie, the canine superhero of 1950s TV.

"We found dogs not only sense what their owners are feeling, if a dog knows a way to help them, they'll go through barriers to provide to help them," said lead author Emily Sanford, a graduate student in psychological and brain sciences at Johns Hopkins University who did the research as an undergraduate at Macalester College.