Familiarity with humans affect dogs' tendencies to follow human majority groups

A Pilot Study of the Effects of Human Intervention on Canine Group Movement Behavior

Dogs are the oldest domesticated animals. The process of domestication of dogs is still unclear; however, they have established themselves as human partners and are sometimes more cooperative with humans than their conspecifics. In this study, to determine the effect of affiliative human presence on group behavior in dogs, we conducted short-time trials analyzing dog group movements. There was a hierarchical relationship in which juvenile dogs were aware of adult dogs, and adult dogs were aware of human movements. We also found that the age of the juvenile dog and the characteristics of their mothers may affect the movement behavior of juvenile dogs.

Corrigendum: The Gaze Communications Between Dogs/Cats and Humans: Recent Research Review and Future Directions

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.613512.].

From the Horse's Perspective: Investigating Attachment Behaviour and the Effect of Training Method on Fear Reactions and Ease of Handling-A Pilot Study

The study investigated equine responses to novelty and handling, aiming to reveal whether horse-human relationships reflect criteria of an attachment bond. Twelve adult Standardbreds were subjected to a fear-eliciting test (novel objects presented close to two humans) and a handling test (being led passing novel objects) to study attachment-related behaviours and ease of handling. The tests were performed both before (pre-test) and after (post-test) horses had been trained by the same female handler (10 sessions of 15 min). Horses were assigned to three groups of four, each of which underwent different operant conditioning protocols: negative reinforcement (NR; pressure, release of lead, and whip tap signals) or combined NR with either positive reinforcement using food (PRf) or wither scratching (PRs). Results showed that neither familiarity of the person nor training method had a significant impact on the horses' behavioural responses in the post-tests. However, horses showed decreased heart rates between pre- and post-tests, which may indicate habituation, an effect of training per se, or that the presence of the familiar trainer served to calm the horses during the challenging situations. There were large individual variations among the horses' responses and further studies are needed to increase our understanding of horse-human relationships.

The Gaze Communications Between Dogs/Cats and Humans: Recent Research Review and Future Directions

Dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis silvestris catus) have been domesticated through different processes. Dogs were the first domesticated animals, cooperating with humans by hunting and guarding. In contrast, cats were domesticated as predators of rodents and lived near human habitations when humans began to settle and farm. Although the domestication of dogs followed a different path from that of cats, and they have ancestors of a different nature, both have been broadly integrated into-and profoundly impacted-human society. The coexistence between dogs/cats and humans is based on non-verbal communication. This review focuses on "gaze," which is an important signal for humans and describes the communicative function of dogs' and cats' eye-gaze behavior with humans. We discuss how the function of the gaze goes beyond communication to mutual emotional connection, namely "bond" formation. Finally, we present a research approach to multimodal interactions between dogs/cats and humans that participate in communication and bond formation.