Conspecific observational learning by adult dogs in a training context

Puppies in the problem-solving paradigm: quick males and social females

We report an observational, double-blind study that examined puppies’ behaviors while engaged in solving an experimental food retrieval task (food retrieval task instrument: FRTI). The experimental setting included passive social distractors (i.e., the dog’s owner and a stranger). The focus was on how the social and physical environment shapes puppies’ behaviors according to sex. The dependent variables were the number of tasks solved on an apparatus (Performance Index) and the time required to solve the first task (Speed). Sex and Stress were set as explanatory factors, and Social Interest, FRTI interactions, other behavior, and age as covariates. The main findings were that male puppies solved the first task faster than females. On the other hand, females displayed significantly more social interest and did so more rapidly than males. Males showed delayed task resolution. This study demonstrates sex differences in a problem-solving task in dog puppies for the first time, thus highlighting that sexually dimorphic behavioral differences in problem-solving strategies develop early on during ontogenesis.

Do Emotional Cues Influence the Performance of Domestic Dogs in an Observational Learning Task?

Using social information is not indiscriminate and being able to choose what to copy and from whom to copy is critical. Dogs are able to learn socially, to recognize, and respond to dog as well as human emotional expressions, and to make reputation-like inferences based on how people behave towards their owner. Yet, the mechanisms dogs use for obtaining and utilizing social information are still to be fully understood, especially concerning whether emotional cues influence dogs’ social learning. Therefore, our main aim was to test the hypothesis that an emotionally charged (negative, positive, or neutral) interaction with the demonstrator of a “V” detour task prior to testing would affect subjects’ performance, by: (i) changing the value of the information provided by the demonstrator or (ii) changing the valence of the learning environment. Our experimental design consisted of three phases: pre-test (subjects were allowed to solve the task alone); emotional display (dogs watched the unfamiliar human behaving in either a positive, negative or neutral way towards their owner); test (demonstrator showed the task and subjects were allowed to move freely). Only dogs that failed in pre-test were considered for analysis (n = 46). We analyzed four dependent variables: success, time to solve the task, latency to reach the fence and matching the side of demonstration. For each, we used four models (GEEs and GLMMs) to investigate the effect of (1) demographic factors; (2) experimental design factors (including emotional group); (3) behavior of the dog; and (4) side chosen and matching. All models took into account all trials (random effect included) and the first trials only. Our findings corroborate previous studies of social learning, but present no evidence to sustain our hypothesis. We discuss the possibility of our stimuli not being salient enough in a task that involves highly motivating food and relies on long and highly distracting interval between phases. Nevertheless, these results represent an important contribution to the study of dog behavior and social cognition and pave the way for further investigations.

A wolfdog point of view on the impossible task paradigm

To elucidate the role of domestication, we used the impossible task paradigm to test Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs with a known proportion of 'wolfblood' in their DNA and, as a control group for our subjects, we used German shepherd dogs. We hypothesized that the difference between wolves and domestic dogs is based on genetics and modified by obedience; if so, the looking back performance of the subject should be linked to its proportion of wolf-genes. To prove that, we observed 73 Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs, and 27 German shepherd dogs, and analysed their human-directed gazing behaviour during our test. Our apparatus consisted of a glass container placed upside down over a small amount of food. The test proceeded with three solvable trials, in which the subject could obtain the food by manipulating the container, followed by an unsolvable one in which the container was fixed onto the board. Our results suggest that there is no significant correlation between the probability of looking back in Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs and their proportion of 'wolf blood'. However, the probability of looking back was higher in German Shepherd dogs than in Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs (odds ratio = 9.1). German Shepherd dogs showed not only a higher frequency of looking back, but also the duration of their looks was longer.

Effects of size and personality on social learning and human-directed behaviour in horses (Equus caballus)

Due to our long history of living in close association with horses, these animals are suggested to have enhanced skills in understanding and communicating with humans. Today, horses have become important to humans for sport and leisure and their understanding of human behaviour and their human-directed behaviour are therefore of great importance. In this study, we investigated 22 horses in a human contact-seeking experiment where they were presented with an unsolvable problem and a detour experiment with a human demonstrator. The unsolvable problem consisted of pieces of carrot in a closed bucket and the detour resembled the shape of V. Additionally, personality traits of the participating horses were assessed. Interestingly, the full-sized horses (N = 11) showed more human-related behaviours when presented with an unsolvable problem compared to before the carrots were made unreachable (p = 0.033), while the ponies (N = 11) did not. However, neither the full-sized horses nor the ponies were significantly more successful in the detour after human demonstrations than in control trials. When comparing the two experiments, we found the task-oriented behaviour in the detour test to positively correlate with human proximity and eye contact-seeking behaviour towards humans during the unsolvable problem in the contact-seeking test. Interestingly, again this was only true for the full-sized horses (p < 0.05) and not for the ponies. From the horse personality questionnaire results, the traits excitability and anxiousness revealed strong negative correlations with human-directed behaviour in the contact-seeking experiment (p < 0.05). Hence, size (full-sized horse/pony) and personality influenced the human-related behaviours of the horses and we suggest a future focus on these aspects to deepen our understanding of human-horse communication.

Behavioral and Perceptual Differences between Sexes in Dogs: An Overview

In this paper, we review the scientific reports of sex-related differences in dogs as compared to the outcomes described for wild animals. Our aim was to explore whether the differences in male and female dogs were affected by the domestication process, in which artificial selection is the main driver. For this purpose, we used information regarding personality traits, cognitive processes, and perception, for which there is a wide theoretical framework in behavioral ecology. Aggressiveness and boldness, described as a behavioral syndrome, were reported as being higher in males than females. Females also seemed more inclined to interspecific social interactions with humans in tasks that require cooperative skills, whereas males appeared more inclined to social play, thus implying different levels of social engagement between the sexes, depending on the context. Studies on cognitive processes underlined a greater flexibility in resorting to a particular navigation strategy in males. Most lateralization studies seem to support the view that males are preferentially left-handed and females are preferentially right-handed. Reports on visual focusing coherently rank females as superior in focusing on single social and physical stimuli. Only male dogs are able to discriminate kin; however, the timing of the olfactory recording in sexes is related to the stimulus relevance. Dogs are largely in line with life-history theories, which indicate that sex differences in dogs are mainly rooted in their biological and evolutionary heritage, remaining unchanged despite artificial selection. In contrast, the higher intraspecific sociability in wild male animals was not replicated in dogs.