Why is it that dogs have earned the title “man’s best friend?”
Dogs have been domesticated for the last 33,000 years, but humans have also domesticated sheep, cows, horses, and numerous other animals that have lived alongside human development. But dogs have had a special relationship that elevates them beyond animals with a job or house pets.
It’s all about communication! It’s all about how good they are at interacting with people. Researchers from the University of Arizona set out to figure this out how it is that dogs have earned such high regard in the lives of people. What is so special about them…and us?
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A study published this year in the journal Current Biology finds that genetics may help explain why some dogs perform better than others on social tasks. Lead study author Emily Bray, a postdoctoral research associate in the UArizona School of Anthropology in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences found that in addition to the sorts of social skills that are present in adult dogs, there is evidence “that puppies – sort of like humans – are biologically prepared to interact in these social ways.” This means that puppies are “hard-wired” to connect with humans from as early as 8-weeks old.
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While dogs can eventually learn to listen to their owners, some pups seem to be born with an innate ability to understand humans.” Puppies, even before they have a lot of experience with people, can reciprocate [the] human gaze and can use information from humans in a social context, like pointing as a cue to find hidden food.”
- The Study
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- Highlights
- Dogs exhibit social skills and interest in human faces by 8 weeks of age
- Genetic factors account for nearly half of variation in dog social skills
- Puppies successfully used human gestures from the very first trial
- To determine whether the tendency to interact with humans was innate, Bray and her colleagues ran several experiments with 375 8-week-old puppies who had little
previous one-on-one experience with humans. The puppies were all Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers or a mix of the two breeds. All of the puppies in the study were bred to be service dogs. - The researchers placed a 4-foot-by-6-foot mat on the floor. At one end of the mat, a handler sat holding a puppy. At the other end sat a researcher, with two upside-down cups in front of her. One of the cups covered a treat. In one part of the experiment, the researcher called out “puppy!” in a high-pitched voice and pointed to the cup covering the treat. Amazingly, some of the puppies would march right over to that cup, knock it over and gobble down the treat.
- The ability to take directions without any training — something not all the puppies in the study could do equally well — suggested to the researchers that these particular puppies had an innate ability to understand humans. In another part of the experiment with the same setup, instead of pointing to the cup with the treat, the researcher would call the puppy’s attention to a small yellow block and place it next to the cup with the hidden treat. Again, some of the puppies would go right to the correct cup, tip it over and grab the treat.
Born to be mild: puppies have an innate ability to understand humans - Noting that some of the puppies weren’t as good at understanding human communication, the researchers wondered whether the variation in the pups’ abilities could be explained by genetics. In an analysis of the puppies’ social skills, along with their multigenerational pedigrees, the researchers found that genes could explain more than 40 percent of the variation in the dogs’ abilities. “We know now that the variation we see in these skills” from puppy to puppy “is due to genetic factors,” Bray said.
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The study may help resolve a dispute among dog researchers “over whether these abilities are innate or learned,” said Dr. Katherine Houpt, an animal behaviorist and a professor emeritus at the Cornell College of Veterinary Medicine. “This certainly shows dogs have innate abilities.”
Sources; [Journal Link] [Univ Arizona Link] [Link] [Video of ‘evolution of puppy-dog eyes’ connection to humans]