Comparing pet and detection dogs (Canis familiaris) on two aspects of social cognition

Abstract

Interspecific communication between dogs and humans enables dogs to occupy significant roles in human society, both in companion and working roles. Dogs excel at using human communicative signals in problem-solving tasks, and solicit human contact when unable to solve a problem. Dogs' sociocognitive behavior likely results from a selection for attention to humans during domestication, but is highly susceptible to environmental factors. Training for particular tasks appears to enhance doghuman communication, but effects may depend on the nature of the relationship determined by their role. Our aim was to examine two types of social cognition (responsiveness to human gestures, and human-directed communicative behavior in an unsolvable task) in pet dogs (n = 29) and detection dogs (n = 35). The groups did not differ in their ability to follow human signals, but pets were less responsive to signals given by a stranger than by their owner. Pets also exhibited more human-directed gazing in the unsolvable task, showing a bias for gazing at their owner compared with the stranger, whereas detection dogs showed greater persistence in attempting to solve the task compared with pets. Thus, different aspects of dogs' sociocognitive behavior may differentially vary as a function of selection or training for particular roles.

Life experience rather than domestication accounts for dogs’ increased oxytocin release during social contact with humans

“…However, it has been argued that comparing pet dogs to enclosure-living wolves could have biased the results of the latter study 33 . Indeed, the importance of controlling for previous experiences and exposure to humans in sociability testing cannot be emphasized enough (Two Stage hypothesis: 34 , 35 , Table 1 ; 15 , 19 , 36 , 37 . In addition, it is likely that the bond between a pet dog and its owner differs qualitatively from the relationship an enclosure-living animal may establish with its caregiver 38 .…”

Disentangling help-seeking and giving up: differential human-directed gazing by dogs in a modified unsolvable task paradigm

“…Nonetheless, results have not been consistent across studies. For example, in Lazarowski et al ( 2020 ), human-directed gazing did not differ between dogs from cooperative working breeds (i.e., selected for working in visual contact with humans, including herding dogs and gundogs) and those with no such selective history. In addition, studies reported no difference in gaze duration in Czechoslovakian wolfdogs and German shepherds (Maglieri et al 2019 ) (nor between "wolf-like" dogs and molossoids, Passalacqua et al 2011 ).…”

“…In Marshall-Pescini et al ( 2009 ), search and rescue dogs, used to working at a distance from their owner, spent similar amounts of time gazing at the owner and the experimenter, whereas agility dogs focused significantly more on the owner than on the stranger (Marshall-Pescini et al 2009 ). In Lazarowski et al ( 2020 ), pet dogs, unlike detection dogs, gazed longer at a familiar person than at a stranger. Also, in Sanford et al ( 2018 ), pet dogs of various breeds spent on average more time gazing at the owner than at the stranger (neither of whom had interacted with the unsolvable task).…”

“…Cooperative working breeds, such as herding dogs, appear to have a higher propensity for human-directed gazing during unsolvable tasks than those bred for working independently (reviewed in Lazarowski et al 2020 ). Furthermore, breeds considered as “primitive” or “wolf-like”, such as the Czechoslovakian wolfdog, tend to gaze less at humans than other breed groups, including herding dogs, hounds, retrievers, and working breeds (Passalacqua et al 2011 ; Konno et al 2016 ; Maglieri et al 2019 ; Sommese et al 2019 ).…”

“…For example, agility dogs (Marshall-Pescini et al 2009 ), search and rescue dogs (Marshall-Pescini et al 2009 ), water rescue dogs (D’Aniello et al 2015 ), and dogs participating in animal-assisted interventions (Cavalli et al 2020 ) display more human-directed gazing than untrained pet dogs. On the other hand, guide dogs (Scandurra et al 2015 ) and detection dogs (Lazarowski et al 2020 ) show less ‘looking back’ than untrained dogs.…”