Dog cognitive development: a longitudinal study across the first 2 years of life

Bray, Emily E.; Gruen, Margaret E.; Gnanadesikan, Gitanjali E.; Horschler, Daniel J.; Levy, Kerinne; Kennedy, Brenda; Hare, Brian; MacLean, Evan L.

doi:10.1007/s10071-020-01443-7

Cited by 50 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…While there are several studies that find evidence for long-term stability in temperament ( 76 , 77 , 104 – 109 ), others find little evidence for these associations ( 110 , 111 ). Furthermore, while cognitive traits have been much less studied, there is emerging evidence that some traits, such as those related to executive function, social communicative skills, and odor discrimination, show moderate stability over time, while others, such as memory and auditory discrimination, do not ( 91 , 112 ). Finally, while multiple studies have found that early screening (i.e., 12 weeks or younger) of puppy temperament is not very effective in predicting working dog success ( 104 , 113 , 114 ), there are others that suggest assessments of puppy behavior do have some predictive value ( 97 , 106 , 107 ).…”

Section: What Factors Will Optimize the Process Of Placing Successful Working Dogs?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing the Selection and Performance of Working Dogs

et al. 2021

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Dogs perform a variety of integral roles in our society, engaging in work ranging from assistance (e.g., service dogs, guide dogs) and therapy to detection (e.g., search-and-rescue dogs, explosive detection dogs) and protection (e.g., military and law enforcement dogs). However, success in these roles, which requires dogs to meet challenging behavioral criteria and to undergo extensive training, is far from guaranteed. Therefore, enhancing the selection process is critical for the effectiveness and efficiency of working dog programs and has the potential to optimize how resources are invested in these programs, increase the number of available working dogs, and improve working dog welfare. In this paper, we review two main approaches for achieving this goal: (1) developing selection tests and criteria that can efficiently and effectively identify ideal candidates from the overall pool of candidate dogs, and (2) developing approaches to enhance performance, both at the individual and population level, via improvements in rearing, training, and breeding. We summarize key findings from the empirical literature regarding best practices for assessing, selecting, and improving working dogs, and conclude with future steps and recommendations for working dog organizations, breeders, trainers, and researchers.

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confidence: 99%

Enhancing the Selection and Performance of Working Dogs

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“…On the other hand, although puppies looked to the human during the unsolvable task, they exhibited much less social gaze in this context (mean = 1.1s, 95% CI = 0.9-1.2s). These findings suggest that, like human children ( 22, 23 ), puppies excel at comprehending and responding to human-initiated social signals, while production of communicative behavior occurs later in development ( 20 ).…”

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confidence: 92%

“…The experimenter then entered the testing arena and petted the puppy if they approached within arm’s distance. The time that the puppy spent in proximity to the experimenter was recorded ( 20 ). Lastly, in the unsolvable task, puppies initially learned to displace the lid from a container to obtain a food reward within; then, on test trials, the lid to the container was fixed in place, rendering the problem unsolvable, and the experimenter timed the duration of the puppy’s gaze to their face ( 21 ).…”

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Early-Emerging and Highly-Heritable Sensitivity to Human Communication in Dogs

Bray

Gnanadesikan

Horschler

et al. 2021

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Dogs exhibit similarities to humans in their sensitivity to cooperative-communicative cues, but the extent to which they are biologically prepared for communication with humans is heavily debated. To investigate the developmental and genetic origins of these traits, we tested 375 eight-week-old dog puppies on a battery of social-cognitive measures. We hypothesized that if dogs' social skills for cooperating with humans are biologically prepared, then these skills should emerge robustly in early development, not require extensive socialization or learning, and exhibit heritable variation. Puppies were highly skillful at using diverse human gestures and we found no evidence of learning across test trials, suggesting that they possess these skills prior to their first exposure to these cues. Critically, over 40% of the variation in dogs' point-following abilities and attention to human faces was attributable to genetic factors. Our results suggest that these social skills in dogs emerge early in development and are under strong genetic control.

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“…Second, the interspecific communicative abilities of dogs emerge early (19). While dogs can become more skillful using human gestures with age and training (20,21), the use of human gestures does not require intensive exposure to humans. Around the age of weaning (~7-9 weeks) dog puppies already use human gestures (4,8,22), with free ranging dog puppies and litter-reared assistance dog puppies succeeding with multiple gestures on their very first experimental trial (11,23).…”

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Cooperative Communication with Humans Evolved to Emerge Early in Dogs

Salomons

Smith

Callahan-Beckel

et al. 2021

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While we know that dogs evolved from wolves through a process of domestication, it remains unclear how this process may have affected dog cognitive development. Here we tested dog (N=44) and wolf (N=37) puppies, 5-18 weeks old, on a battery of temperament and cognition tasks. Dog puppies were more attracted to humans, read human gestures more skillfully and made more eye contact with humans than wolf puppies. The two species were similarly attracted to objects and performed similarly on nonsocial measures of memory and inhibitory control. These results demonstrate the role of domestication in enhancing the cooperative communication skills of dogs through selection on attraction to humans, which altered developmental pathways.One Sentence SummaryDomestication altered dogs’ developmental pathways to enhance their cooperative communication with humans.

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Dog cognitive development: a longitudinal study across the first 2 years of life

Cited by 50 publications

References 108 publications

Enhancing the Selection and Performance of Working Dogs

Enhancing the Selection and Performance of Working Dogs

Early-Emerging and Highly-Heritable Sensitivity to Human Communication in Dogs

Cooperative Communication with Humans Evolved to Emerge Early in Dogs

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