1. Dog Cognition

2. Some statistics on dogs as pets
40% of U.S. households have at least 1 dog
70+ million dogs in U.S. alone
Estimated $45 billion/year industry
Why dogs?
Behavior appears to be attuned to humans
As companion animals, show “loyalty”, “compassion”, and other cognitive-emotional behaviors

3. Why study dog cognition?
Unlike other domestic animals, wild conspecific is readily available
Data are available domestication of a wild canine species (Fox) which demonstrates evolution of many “dog-like” traits.
Appear to have cognitive abilities that are more advanced than most non-human primates.
Question is why?
Two competing theories to explain evolution of cognition in dogs:
Domestication hypothesis (Hare & Tomasello, 2005)
Two-Stage hypothesis (Wynne)

4. Sensitivity to human social cues
Sensitivity to human social stimuli
reliably alter behavior in presence of such stimuli to obtain reinforcement
These behaviors emerge after instruction or mediation of human companion
Theory of Mind and Dogs: Heyes (1998): “…an animal with a theory of mind believes that mental states play a causal role in generating behavior and infers the presence of mental states in others by observing their appearance and behavior under various circumstances”.
Several sets of data point to such an ability in dogs

5. Dogs can…..
Selectively avoid forbidden food, but grab it when the owner is not looking
Beg from an individual that can see them, rather than their owner who cannot.
Learn via Social learning and Imitation
Watch human for cues to obtain food/toy
Can be taught to imitate: “do it”
Follow a human point: sensitive to
Arm point
Head turning
Nodding
Bowing
Glancing in direction of target
Show word learning

6. Is your choice my Choice?
Study by Prato-Previde, Marshall-Pescini and Valsecchi (Italians!).
Interested in how dogs’ owners may influence how dogs choose between bigger and smaller choice
Food choice is particularly strong
Most dogs food driven
Choose bigger (evolutionary drive, too!)
But, also want to “please” their owners

7. What does other research say?
Dogs can count?
Numerical competence and ability to discriminate more and less
Dogs about as good at numerical competence as the great apes!
Greater degree of socialization = better skills
Follow human gestures
Can be fooled by humans pointing wrong direction
Dogs may perform actions that are counterproductive for themselves if humans ask for that action

8. Why choose owner’s preference?
What has years of socialization selected dogs to do?
Attend to owners
“please” owners by obeying commands, doing what owners desire
Dogs are selected to both
Attend to humans
Choose most food

9. Method 54 dog-owner dyads Three different tasks:
Mostly pure breeds
Some mixed breeds
Three different tasks:
Bigger smaller choice
Bigger smaller choice with human pointing to smaller
1:1 choice with human pointing to a particular choice
Also gave the CBARQ assessment
Several subscales on aggression, excitation, separation anxiety, general fears
Did not feed dogs for several hours before study

10. Results Dependent variable: what choice the dogs made
Free choice condition
74% chose large quantity more often
18% chose smaller
8% showed no preference

11. Results 1:1 condition: Bigger/Smaller owners’ preference
82% chose owners choice
6% chose opposite plate
12% showed no preference
Bigger/Smaller owners’ preference
32% chose larger
32% chose owner’s choice
36% chose both equally often

12. Other Effects Gender differences: no differences
Age effects: older dogs were likely to be more accurate
Training Effects: no effects
Location effects: indoors better than outdoors
CBARQ: dogs more likely to follow owner preference were more likely to have higher separation anxiety scores

13. Lupfer-Johnson and Ross
Dogs, along with just a few other species, are able to learn from conspecifics
Human children
Red winged blackbirds
Dwarf (Siberian) but not Syrian hamsters
Rats
What is common element: All are social species
Social behaviors important for feeding
Even in dogs!
Pavlov’s work showed that feeding can be conditioned
Socializing while searching for food is advantageous
Help one another
All more likely to eat when work together
Working together increases likelihood of survival for individual and the group
Examined whether food preferences could be acquired from interacting with recently fed conspecifics

14. Method 22 dogs in boarding facility (doggie day care)
1 dog served as demonstrator for 12 total demonstrator-observer pairs
All other dogs served once as either demonstrator or observer
Used flavored food: basil or Thyme to dog food
Procedure
Demonstrator dog ate basil or thyme food in separate room
Then, entered group room and allowed to interact with observer dog for 20 minutes
Then observer dog offered both thyme and basil food; had to choose one to eat
Food weighed to determine how much they ate of each food.

15. Results One way ANOVA on the data
Dogs were significantly more likely to eat the flavor the demonstrator dog ate
Dogs with basil demonstrators ate significantly more basil food than those with thyme demonstrators (apparently thyme is icky)

16. Social Learning
Selectively avoid forbidden food, but grab it when the owner is not looking
Beg from an individual that can see them, rather than their owner who cannot.
Learn via Social learning and Imitation
Watch human for cues to obtain food/toy
Can be taught to imitate: “do it”
Follow a human point: sensitive to
Arm point
Head turning
Nodding
Bowing
Glancing in direction of target
Miklosi & sporoni, 2006; Agnette et al, 2000; Udell, et al, 2008

17. Dogs show Perspective Taking
Can do perspective taking
Change reaction to forbidden food (Call, et a, 2003; Tomasello, 2008)
Change where drop ball depending on position of human
Begging responses change depending on actions of human
Attempt to communicate with humans:
Move objects closer
Indicate location of items
Ask for help with problem
Occurs as early as 8 weeks
Service dogs are better!
Miklosi, et al, 2003; Viranyi, et al, 2006; Topal, et al, 2006

18. Dogs show social modeling
Can model other dogs
Not as good as model humans
Snout contact provides information (Lupfer-Johnson)
Very good at modeling off of humans
Action matching: Do as I do
Topal, et al, 2006; Huber, et al, 2009; Range, et al, 20070

19. Choice of Target when Begging (Povinelli and Eddy, 1996):
Dogs were trained to beg from a human for food
Offered choice of a blindfolded human or a human that could see them
(for control, also a human with the blindfold over the mouth, nose, around the neck)
Dogs preferred the human with no blindfold over the eyes; no difference between this an person with blindfold who could see
Only chimps, bonobos also do this
Povllelli, et al, 1990; Heyes, 1993
Dogs, like chimps, use human behavior for cues to food location
Humans pointed, turned head or just turned eyes to look at location of hidden food
Dogs could use all three cues to determine where the food was located

20. Expansion: NOT a Clever Hans Trick Held, et al
Expansion: NOT a Clever Hans Trick Held, et al., 2001; Ashton and Cooper (in Cooper et al, 2003)
Dogs could use errors as clues, as well
Dogs blindfolded or not
Watched/not watched model get a hidden food
Those who could watch did better
Had other dogs watch the blindfolded dogs find the food
Blindfolded dogs made many mistakes before found food
Those dogs who watched avoided the areas that the food was not and went more directly to the final food location, avoiding the errors

21. Very simple, but important, Study!
Clear demonstration of dog following conspecific modeling!
Claudia Fugazza and Adam Miklósi (Eötvös Loránd, University, Budapest, Hungary)
Do As I Do: Using Social Learning to Train Dogs

23. Why study dog cognition/behavior?
Dogs are an integral part of life with humans
60% of households have a dog
Estimated that Americans will spend $52.87 billion on pets in 2012
Pet spending has increased every year since it was $17 billion in 1994.
Dogs used professionally
Assistance dogs
Therapy dogs
Schools, hospitals, many many settings!
People feel strong bond with dogs
Recent research suggests dogs may function cognitively as high or higher than the great apes (our closest genetic relative)