A wolf begging for food in Monique Udell's experiment.
Credit: Monique Udell
FLORIDA: The ability of domestic dogs and wolves to read and respond to the level of people's attentiveness is based on a combination of specific cues, context and previous experience, U.S. researchers have shown.
It's easy to marvel at dogs' uncanny, seemingly 'telepathic' behaviour: how they appear to know who is most likely to give them food and can predict when they might get away with bad behaviour. A new study has now shed light on the way dogs think about and respond the behaviour of their human companions.
"Dogs don't have to read our minds; they can read our behaviour," said lead author and expert in canine cognition, Monique Udell, from the University of Florida.
"Even when we don't intend to, we are giving off subtle cues about the way we feel and what we will do next, from the direction of our gaze to our body orientation, and even the way we smell. This may be one reason that pet dogs can coexist so closely with humans."
Human-like behaviour
Previous studies have shown that dogs are capable of a remarkable range of human-like behaviours; they have been shown to perform as well or even better than chimpanzees at responding to human body language, verbal commands and attention states.
This has led to debate as to whether dogs are aware of people's behaviour and can predict how a person will act as a result of it, or whether they are simply responding to the presence or absence of certain stimuli.
Publishing in the journal Learning & Behaviour, Udell and colleagues carried out two experiments to test the ability of pet dogs, rescue shelter dogs and wolves, to successfully beg for food from an attentive individual, versus an inattentive individual.
Choosing the best human for food
In the first experiment, two people simultaneously offered food to the subject dog or wolf. One person was always attentive, giving the animal eye contact, while the other was unable to see the animal as they either had a camera or book obscuring their eyes, their back turned or a bucket over their head.
The researchers compared the success rate of the animals at choosing the attentive person as the best individual to beg from. They showed, for the first time, that wolves as well as domestic dogs tended to beg for food from an attentive individual rather someone who was not paying attention.
The animals were much better at choosing the attentive person when a familiar cue - such as a turned back as opposed to a bucket - was used to show inattentiveness.
Drawing on past experience
"Both dogs and wolves seem to be responding based on their past experiences," said Udell. "A book is a familiar object for pet dogs, and reading a book likely predicts inattention. A person reading a book is not likely to be engaged in giving a dog treats. So pet dogs with exposure to humans reading books tend to avoid begging from them and prefer the person looking at them."
Udell added, "Wolves, even captive and tame ones, and dogs living in a shelter have less opportunity to experience people reading books. This was reflected in the results, as the wolves tended to approach the book-reading individuals for food as much as the attentive person.
Likewise, since few dogs and wolves regularly see people walking around with their head covered by a bucket, they performed poorly at selecting the attentive person under this condition.
