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McCartney JM, Leavens DA. The Role of Life History and Familiarity in Performance of Working and Non-Working Dogs ( Canis lupus familiaris) in a Point-Following Task. Animals (Basel) 2024; 14:573. [PMID: 38396541 PMCID: PMC10885941 DOI: 10.3390/ani14040573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2024] [Revised: 02/04/2024] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Domestic dogs are very successful at following human communicative gestures in paradigms such as the object-choice task. Pet dogs also prefer responding to cues given by a familiar cue-giver and this had not been found in working dogs. Therefore, we tested three groups of dogs in the object-choice task (n = 54): the groups were "Actively working" dogs from working dog breeds, pet dogs from "Non-working breeds" and pet dogs from "Working breeds". We found that "Actively working" and "Working breeds" dog groups outperformed "Non-working breeds" in following a point in the object-choice task. We also found that both "Actively working" and "Working breeds" preferred a familiar cue-giver over an unfamiliar one, in contrast to previous findings. Therefore, we conclude that dogs' abilities to perform well in the object-choice task is influenced by the selective history of the breed, and this is then increased by life experience and training.
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2
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Pongrácz P, Lugosi CA, Szávai L, Gengeliczky A, Jégh-Czinege N, Faragó T. Alarm or emotion? intranasal oxytocin helps determine information conveyed by dog barks for adult male human listeners. BMC Ecol Evol 2024; 24:8. [PMID: 38221611 PMCID: PMC10789012 DOI: 10.1186/s12862-024-02198-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2023] [Accepted: 01/03/2024] [Indexed: 01/16/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Barks play an important role in interspecific communication between dogs and humans, by allowing a reliable perception of the inner state of dogs for human listeners. However, there is growing concern in society regarding the nuisance that barking dogs cause to the surrounding inhabitants. We assumed that at least in part, this nuisance effect can be explained by particular communicative functions of dog barks. In this study we experimentally tested two separate hypotheses concerning how the content of dog barks could affect human listeners. According to the first hypothesis, barks that convey negative inner states, would especially cause stress in human listeners due to the process called interspecific empathy. Based on the second hypothesis, alarm-type dog barks cause particularly strong stress in the listener, by capitalizing on their specific acoustic makeup (high pitch, low tonality) that resembles to the parameters of a baby's cry. We tested 40 healthy, young adult males in a double-blind placebo controlled experiment, where participants received either intranasal oxytocin or placebo treatment. After an incubation period, they had to evaluate the (1) perceived emotions (happiness, fear and aggression), that specifically created dog bark sequences conveyed to them; and (2) score the annoyance level these dog barks elicited in them. RESULTS We found that oxytocin treatment had a sensitizing effect on the participants' reactions to negative valence emotions conveyed by dog barks, as they evaluated low fundamental frequency barks with higher aggression scores than the placebo-treated participants did. On the other hand, oxytocin treatment attenuated the annoyance that noisy (atonal) barks elicited from the participants. CONCLUSIONS Based on these results, we provide first-hand evidence that dog barks provide information to humans (which may also cause stress) in a dual way: through specific attention-grabbing functions and through emotional understanding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Péter Pongrácz
- Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, Budapest, 1117, Hungary.
| | - Csenge Anna Lugosi
- Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, Budapest, 1117, Hungary
| | - Luca Szávai
- Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, Budapest, 1117, Hungary
| | - Atina Gengeliczky
- Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, Budapest, 1117, Hungary
| | - Nikolett Jégh-Czinege
- Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, Budapest, 1117, Hungary
| | - Tamás Faragó
- Neuroethology of Communication Lab, Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
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3
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Following the human point: Research with nonhuman animals since Povinelli, Nelson, and Boysen (1990). Learn Behav 2023; 51:34-47. [PMID: 36175744 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-022-00546-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
For this special issue in honor of Dr. Sarah (Sally) Boysen's career, we review studies on point following in nonhuman animals. Of the 126 papers that we documented on this topic published since the publication of Povinelli, Nelson, and Boysen (1990, Journal of Comparative Psychology, 104, 203-210), 94 (75%) were published in the past 15 years, including 22 in the past 5 years, indicating that this topic is still an active area of interest in the field of animal behavior and cognition. We present results of a survey of publication trends, discussing the species tested and the sample sizes, and we note methodological considerations and current multilaboratory approaches. We then categorize and synthesize the research questions addressed in these studies, which have been at both the ultimate level (e.g., questions related to evolutionary adaptiveness and phylogenetic differences) and proximate level (e.g., questions related to experiential and temperamental processes). Throughout, we consider future directions for this area of research.
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Shajid Pyari M, Vékony K, Uccheddu S, Pongrácz P. Companion Cats Show No Effect of Trial-and-Error Learning Compared to Dogs in a Transparent-Obstacle Detour Task. Animals (Basel) 2022; 13:ani13010032. [PMID: 36611642 PMCID: PMC9817999 DOI: 10.3390/ani13010032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2022] [Revised: 12/13/2022] [Accepted: 12/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
We tested companion cats and dogs in similar indoor conditions using identical procedures in the classic detour task around a V-shaped transparent wire-mesh fence. Besides the control group, we used two types of laser light-pointing demonstration (moving around the fence, or pointing straight at the reward). We found that dogs reached the food reward faster than cats; across consecutive trials, only the dogs showed improvement in their speed and dogs continued to use the same side for detouring after a preceding successful attempt, while cats chose the side for detouring irrespective of their previous successful trials. In addition, 'demonstrating' a detour with the laser did not influence the speed or direction of the detour of the subjects; and dogs looked back to their owner more frequently than the cats did. We discuss the possibility that for dogs, detouring along a transparent obstacle represents a more problematic task than for cats; therefore, dogs strongly rely on their previous experiences. This is the first time that cats were successfully tested in this detour paradigm in direct comparison with dogs. The results are relevant from the aspect of testing cognitive performance in companion cats, which are known to be notoriously reluctant to engage with novel experimental situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Muhzina Shajid Pyari
- Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem—Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter Sétány 1/c, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Kata Vékony
- Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem—Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter Sétány 1/c, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Stefania Uccheddu
- Comparative Ethology Research Group, MTA-ELTE Magyar Tudományos Akadémia-Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, Pázmány Péter Sétány 1/c, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Péter Pongrácz
- Department of Ethology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem—Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter Sétány 1/c, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
- Correspondence:
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5
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Kis A, Bolló H, Gergely A, Topál J. Intranasal oxytocin studies on dogs might not be double-blind. Appl Anim Behav Sci 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
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6
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The acoustic bases of human voice identity processing in dogs. Anim Cogn 2022; 25:905-916. [PMID: 35142977 PMCID: PMC9334438 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01601-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Revised: 01/03/2022] [Accepted: 01/19/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Speech carries identity-diagnostic acoustic cues that help individuals recognize each other during vocal–social interactions. In humans, fundamental frequency, formant dispersion and harmonics-to-noise ratio serve as characteristics along which speakers can be reliably separated. The ability to infer a speaker’s identity is also adaptive for members of other species (like companion animals) for whom humans (as owners) are relevant. The acoustic bases of speaker recognition in non-humans are unknown. Here, we tested whether dogs can recognize their owner’s voice and whether they rely on the same acoustic parameters for such recognition as humans use to discriminate speakers. Stimuli were pre-recorded sentences spoken by the owner and control persons, played through loudspeakers placed behind two non-transparent screens (with each screen hiding a person). We investigated the association between acoustic distance of speakers (examined along several dimensions relevant in intraspecific voice identification) and dogs’ behavior. Dogs chose their owner’s voice more often than that of control persons’, suggesting that they can identify it. Choosing success and time spent looking in the direction of the owner’s voice were positively associated, showing that looking time is an index of the ease of choice. Acoustic distance of speakers in mean fundamental frequency and jitter were positively associated with looking time, indicating that the shorter the acoustic distance between speakers with regard to these parameters, the harder the decision. So, dogs use these cues to discriminate their owner’s voice from unfamiliar voices. These findings reveal that dogs use some but probably not all acoustic parameters that humans use to identify speakers. Although dogs can detect fine changes in speech, their perceptual system may not be fully attuned to identity-diagnostic cues in the human voice.
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7
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Clark H, Leavens DA. The performance of domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) on two versions of the object choice task. Anim Cogn 2021; 24:1087-1098. [PMID: 33687599 PMCID: PMC8360901 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-021-01500-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2020] [Revised: 01/30/2021] [Accepted: 02/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Object choice task (OCT) studies are widely used to assess the phylogenetic and ontogenetic distribution of the understanding of communicative cues, with this understanding serving as a proxy for the discernment of communicative intentions. Recent reviews have found systematic procedural and methodological differences in studies which compare performances across species on the OCT. One such difference concerns the spatial configuration of the test set-up, specifically the distances between the two containers (inter-object distance) and the subject-experimenter distance. Here, we tested dogs on two versions of the task: a central version in which the containers were in the subjects' direct line of vision, and a peripheral version in which the position of the containers was distal to the subject. Half of the subjects were tested with a barrier in the testing environment (as nonhuman primates are tested) and the other half without. We found that dogs tested with a barrier performed significantly better in the central version and were more likely to fail to make a choice in the peripheral version. Dogs tested without a barrier showed comparable performance on the two versions. We thus failed to find support for the distraction hypothesis in dogs. We discuss potential explanations for this, highlighting how methodological differences in the presentation of the OCT can influence outcomes in studies using this paradigm.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Clark
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QH, East Sussex, UK
| | - David A Leavens
- School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QH, East Sussex, UK.
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8
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Delanoeije J, Gerencsér L, Miklósi Á. Do dogs mind the dots? Investigating domestic dogs' (
Canis familiaris
) preferential looking at human‐shaped point‐light figures. Ethology 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.13016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joni Delanoeije
- Department of Ethology Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary
| | - Linda Gerencsér
- Department of Ethology Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary
- MTA‐ELTE “Lendület” Neuroethology of Communication Research Group Hungarian Academy of Sciences—Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary
| | - Ádám Miklósi
- Department of Ethology Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Hungary
- MTA‐ELTE Comparative Research Group Budapest Hungary
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9
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Horowitz A, Franks B. What smells? Gauging attention to olfaction in canine cognition research. Anim Cogn 2019; 23:11-18. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-019-01311-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2019] [Revised: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 09/23/2019] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
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10
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Pogány Á, Torda O, Marinelli L, Lenkei R, Junó V, Pongrácz P. The behaviour of overweight dogs shows similarity with personality traits of overweight humans. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2018; 5:172398. [PMID: 30110408 PMCID: PMC6030291 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.172398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2018] [Accepted: 05/02/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Excessive food intake and the resulting excess weight gain is a growing problem in human and canine populations. Dogs, due to their shared living environment with humans, may provide a beneficial model to study the causes and consequences of obesity. Here, we make use of two well-established research paradigms (two-way choice paradigm and cognitive bias test), previously applied with dogs, to investigate the role of obesity and obesity-prone breeds for food responsiveness. We found no evidence of breed differences in food responsiveness due to one breed being more prone to obesity than another. Breed differences found in this study, however, can be explained by working dog status, i.e. whether the dog works in cooperation with, or independently from, humans. Our results also confirm that overweight dogs, as opposed to normal weight dogs, tried to maximize food intake from the higher quality food and hesitated to do the task when the food reward was uncertain. These results are very similar to those expected from the parallel models that exist between certain personality traits and being overweight in humans, suggesting that dogs are indeed a promising model for experimentally investigating obesity in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ákos Pogány
- Department of Ethology, Biological Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Orsolya Torda
- Department of Ethology, Biological Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Lieta Marinelli
- Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| | - Rita Lenkei
- Department of Ethology, Biological Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Vanda Junó
- Department of Ethology, Biological Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Péter Pongrácz
- Department of Ethology, Biological Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
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11
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Jenkins EK, DeChant MT, Perry EB. When the Nose Doesn't Know: Canine Olfactory Function Associated With Health, Management, and Potential Links to Microbiota. Front Vet Sci 2018; 5:56. [PMID: 29651421 PMCID: PMC5884888 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 58] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2017] [Accepted: 03/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The impact of health, management, and microbiota on olfactory function in canines has not been examined in review. The most important characteristic of the detection canine is its sense of smell. Olfactory receptors are primarily located on the ethmoturbinates of the nasal cavity. The vomeronasal organ is an additional site of odor detection that detects chemical signals that stimulate behavioral and/or physiological changes. Recent advances in the genetics of olfaction suggest that genetic changes, along with the unique anatomy and airflow of the canine nose, are responsible for the macrosmia of the species. Inflammation, alterations in blood flow and hydration, and systemic diseases alter olfaction and may impact working efficiency of detection canines. The scientific literature contains abundant information on the potential impact of pharmaceuticals on olfaction in humans, but only steroids, antibiotics, and anesthetic agents have been studied in the canine. Physical stressors including exercise, lack of conditioning, and high ambient temperature impact olfaction directly or indirectly in the canine. Dietary fat content, amount of food per meal, and timing of meals have been demonstrated to impact olfaction in mice and dogs. Gastrointestinal (GI) microbiota likely impacts olfaction via bidirectional communication between the GI tract and brain, and the microbiota is impacted by exercise, diet, and stress. The objective of this literature review is to discuss the specific effects of health, management, and microbiota shifts on olfactory performance in working canines.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eileen K Jenkins
- First Year Graduate Veterinary Education Program, Public Health Activity - Fort Bragg, United States Army, Fort Bragg, NC, United States
| | - Mallory T DeChant
- Department of Animal Science, Food & Nutrition, College of Agricultural Science, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, United States
| | - Erin B Perry
- Department of Animal Science, Food & Nutrition, College of Agricultural Science, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, United States
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12
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Pongrácz P, Péter A, Miklósi Á. Familiarity with images affects how dogs ( Canis familiaris) process life-size video projections of humans. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2017; 71:1457-1468. [PMID: 28532292 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2017.1333623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
A central problem of behavioural studies providing artificial visual stimuli for non-human animals is to determine how subjects perceive and process these stimuli. Especially in the case of videos, it is important to ascertain that animals perceive the actual content of the images and are not just reacting to the motion cues in the presentation. In this study, we set out to investigate how dogs process life-sized videos. We aimed to find out whether dogs perceive the actual content of video images or whether they only react to the videos as a set of dynamic visual elements. For this purpose, dogs were presented with an object search task where a life-sized projected human was hiding a target object. The videos were either normally oriented or displayed upside down, and we analysed dogs' reactions towards the projector screen after the video presentations, and their performance in the search task. Results indicated that in the case of the normally oriented videos, dogs spontaneously perceived the actual content of the images. However, the 'Inverted' videos were first processed as a set of unrelated visual elements, and only after some exposure to these videos did the dogs show signs of perceiving the unusual configuration of the depicted scene. Our most important conclusion was that dogs process the same type of artificial visual stimuli in different ways, depending on the familiarity of the depicted scene, and that the processing mode can change with exposure to unfamiliar stimuli.
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Affiliation(s)
- Péter Pongrácz
- 1 Department of Ethology, Biological Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - András Péter
- 1 Department of Ethology, Biological Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Ádám Miklósi
- 1 Department of Ethology, Biological Institute, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.,2 MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
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13
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What's the point? Golden and Labrador retrievers living in kennels do not understand human pointing gestures. Anim Cogn 2017; 20:777-787. [PMID: 28508126 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-017-1098-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/25/2016] [Revised: 04/27/2017] [Accepted: 05/05/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
In many studies that have investigated whether dogs' capacities to understand human pointing gestures are aspects of evolutionary or developmental social competences, family-owned dogs have been compared to shelter dogs. However, for most of these studies, the origins of shelter dogs were unknown. Some shelter dogs may have lived with families before entering shelters, and from these past experiences, they may have learned to understand human gestures. Furthermore, there is substantial variation in the methodology and analytic approaches used in such studies (e.g. different pointing protocols, different treatment of trials with no-choice response and indoor vs. outdoor experimental arenas). Such differences in methodologies and analysis techniques used make it difficult to compare results obtained from different studies and may account for the divergent results obtained. We thus attempted to control for several parameters by carrying out a test on dynamic proximal and distal pointing. We studied eleven kennel dogs of known origin that were born and raised in a kennels with limited human interaction. This group was compared to a group of eleven dogs comparable in terms of breed, sex and age that had lived with human families since they were puppies. Our results demonstrate that pet dogs outperform kennel dogs in their comprehension of proximal and distal pointing, regardless of whether trials where no-choice was made were considered as errors or were excluded from statistical analysis, meaning that dogs living in kennels do not understand pointing gestures. Even if genetic effects of the domestication process on human-dog relationships cannot be considered as negligible, our data suggest that dogs need to learn human pointing gestures and thus underscore the importance of ontogenetic processes.
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14
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Pongrácz P, Ujvári V, Faragó T, Miklósi Á, Péter A. Do you see what I see? The difference between dog and human visual perception may affect the outcome of experiments. Behav Processes 2017; 140:53-60. [PMID: 28396145 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2016] [Revised: 03/12/2017] [Accepted: 04/05/2017] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
The visual sense of dogs is in many aspects different than that of humans. Unfortunately, authors do not explicitly take into consideration dog-human differences in visual perception when designing their experiments. With an image manipulation program we altered stationary images, according to the present knowledge about dog-vision. Besides the effect of dogs' dichromatic vision, the software shows the effect of the lower visual acuity and brightness discrimination, too. Fifty adult humans were tested with pictures showing a female experimenter pointing, gazing or glancing to the left or right side. Half of the pictures were shown after they were altered to a setting that approximated dog vision. Participants had difficulty to find out the direction of glancing when the pictures were in dog-vision mode. Glances in dog-vision setting were followed less correctly and with a slower response time than other cues. Our results are the first that show the visual performance of humans under circumstances that model how dogs' weaker vision would affect their responses in an ethological experiment. We urge researchers to take into consideration the differences between perceptual abilities of dogs and humans, by developing visual stimuli that fit more appropriately to dogs' visual capabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Péter Pongrácz
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Vera Ujvári
- Szent István University, Research Institute for Animal Breeding and Nutrition, Hungary.
| | - Tamás Faragó
- MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Ádám Miklósi
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary; MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - András Péter
- Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.
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15
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Oliva JL, Rault JL, Appleton B, Lill A. Oxytocin enhances the appropriate use of human social cues by the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) in an object choice task. Anim Cogn 2015; 18:767-75. [PMID: 25647172 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-015-0843-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/08/2014] [Revised: 01/08/2015] [Accepted: 01/26/2015] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
It has been postulated that the neuropeptide, oxytocin, is involved in human-dog bonding. This may explain why dogs, compared to wolves, are such good performers on object choice tasks, which test their ability to attend to, and use, human social cues in order to find hidden food treats. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of intranasal oxytocin administration, which is known to increase social cognition in humans, on domestic dogs' ability to perform such a task. We hypothesised that dogs would perform better on the task after an intranasal treatment of oxytocin. Sixty-two (31 males and 31 females) pet dogs completed the experiment over two different testing sessions, 5-15 days apart. Intranasal oxytocin or a saline control was administered 45 min before each session. All dogs received both treatments in a pseudo-randomised, counterbalanced order. Data were collected as scores out of ten for each of the four blocks of trials in each session. Two blocks of trials were conducted using a momentary distal pointing cue and two using a gazing cue, given by the experimenter. Oxytocin enhanced performance using momentary distal pointing cues, and this enhanced level of performance was maintained over 5-15 days time in the absence of oxytocin. Oxytocin also decreased aversion to gazing cues, in that performance was below chance levels after saline administration but at chance levels after oxytocin administration.
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Affiliation(s)
- J L Oliva
- School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia,
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16
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Fetching what the owner prefers? Dogs recognize disgust and happiness in human behaviour. Anim Cogn 2014; 18:83-94. [PMID: 24989132 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-014-0779-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2013] [Revised: 06/12/2014] [Accepted: 06/24/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Research using the two-object choice paradigm showed that dogs prefer the object associated with the happy human emotion. However, they provided rather ambiguous results regarding the negative emotions. We assumed that differences between the dogs' and owners' interest towards the 'negative' object might be responsible for this. In our experiment, dogs observed their owner expressing different emotions towards two uniform plastic bottles. Five dog groups were tested based on the condition they received: (1) happy versus neutral, (2) happy versus disgust, (3) neutral versus disgust and (4-5) neutral vs neutral, as control groups. Contrary to previous studies using free choice paradigm, we used a task-driven approach. After the demonstration, the dogs had to retrieve one object to the owner. The dogs' performance in the two neutral-neutral groups did not differ from the chance level. In contrast, subjects were able to distinguish between the happy and neutral expression of the owner: they both approached and fetched the 'happy' object. In the happy-disgusted and neutral-disgusted groups, the dogs approached the bottles randomly, suggesting that they found the 'disgusting' and 'neutral' objects equally attractive. Nevertheless, the dogs preferentially retrieved the object marked with the relatively more positive emotion (happy or neutral) to the owner in both conditions. Our results demonstrate that dogs are able to recognize which is the more positive among two emotions, and in a fetching task situation, they override their own interest in the 'disgusting' object and retrieve what the owner prefers.
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17
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Péter A, Miklósi Á, Pongrácz P. Domestic dogs' (Canis familiaris) understanding of Projected Video Images of a Human Demonstrator in an Object-choice Task. Ethology 2013. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12131] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- András Péter
- Department of Ethology; Eötvös Loránd University; Budapest; Hungary
| | | | - Péter Pongrácz
- Department of Ethology; Eötvös Loránd University; Budapest; Hungary
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