Would You Detour with Me? Association between Functional Breed Selection and Social Learning in Dogs Sheds Light on Elements of Dog–Human Cooperation

Abstract

Interspecific social learning is a main synchronizing mechanism that enables dogs to adapt to the anthropogenic niche. It is not known whether dogs in general possess the capacity of learning from humans or whether more recent selective events have affected their ability to learn from humans. We hypothesized that cooperative and independent working dog breeds may behave differently in a social learning task. Dogs (N = 78 from 16 cooperative and 18 independent breeds) had to detour a transparent, V-shaped wire mesh fence. The experiment consisted of three one-minute-long trials. The control condition did not include a demonstration. In the demonstration condition, the experimenter placed a reward in the inside corner by walking around the fence. Cooperative dogs reached the target significantly faster, while independent dogs did not detour faster in trials 2 and 3 after the human demonstration. Detour latencies were not associated with the keeping conditions and training level of the subjects. As we assembled both test groups from several genetically distantly related breeds, we can exclude the explanation that higher cooperativity emerged only in particular clades of dogs; instead, functional selection for particular working tasks could enhance capacities that affect a wide range of socio-cognitive traits in dogs.

A Comparative Study of Dogs and Goats with Limited Human Socialization in the Impossible Task Paradigm

“…It is essential to mention that in the aforementioned studies, piglets, puppies, dogs, and cats were all socialized in human families or were family pets [9,11,12]. These factors can affect the interaction between animals and humans, as demonstrated with dogs [13,14]. By controlling for human socialization, both studies converge in emphasizing the significance of the behavioral ecology of the ancestors of domesticated animals, as well as the impact of the domestication process in shaping animal interactions with humans.…”