Breed Differences in Domestic Dogs' (Canis familiaris) Comprehension of Human Communicative Signals

By Victoria Wobber, Brian Hare, J. Koler-Matznick, R. Wrangham, Michael Tomasello. 2009

112 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent research suggests that some human-like social skills evolved in dogs (Canis familiaris) during domestication as an incidental by-product of selection for “tame” forms of behavior. It is still possible, however, that the social skills of certain dog breeds came under direct selection that led to further increases in social problem solving ability. To test this hypothesis, different breeds of domestic dogs were compared for their ability to use various human communicative behaviors to find hidden food. We found that even primitive breeds with little human contact were able to use communicative cues. Further, “working” dogs (shepherds and huskies: thought to be bred intentionally to respond to human cooperative communicative signals) were more skilled at using gestural cues than were non-working breeds (basenji and toy poodles: not thought to have been bred for their cooperative-communicative ability). This difference in performance existed regardless of whether the working breeds were more or less genetically wolf-like. These results suggest that subsequent to initial domesticating selection giving rise to cue-following skills, additional selection on communicative abilities in certain breeds has produced substantive differences in those breeds’ abilities to follow cues.

Subfields: Genetics, Pharmacy, Small Animals

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d6c4eccab4669453dc92c4a443d1a4164f14de3a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Genetics

1. R. Wrangham
2. C. Wynne
3. Victoria Wobber
4. Brian Hare
5. P. Valsecchi
6. L. Mehrkam
7. Michael Tomasello
8. M. Udell

In Pharmacy

1. C. Wynne
2. R. Wrangham
3. Victoria Wobber
4. Brian Hare
5. Michael Tomasello
6. M. Udell
7. Juliane Kaminski

In Small Animals

1. C. Wynne
2. Brian Hare
3. R. Wrangham
4. L. Mehrkam

Citations in the corpus

• The world from a dog's point of view (2013, unknown): “In terms of potential breed effects, breeds that have been historically bred for working purposes respond to human pointing cues significantly more than breeds that have been bred for companionship, though all breeds perform better than chance (Wobber et al., 2009).”
• Behavioral differences among breeds of domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris): Current status of the science (2014, background): “Wobber et al. (2009) found that working breeds (which included German Shepherds, Belgian Shepherds and Siberian Huskies) performed better in following human cues to food (including pointing and gazing) than non-working breeds (which included Toy Poodles and Basenjis), and the ability the follow…”
• The self-domestication hypothesis: evolution of bonobo psychology is due to selection against aggression (2012, background): “After proto-dogs began reliably behaving pro-socially towards humans, a second stage of intentional breeding of dogs could begin (Zeuner 1963; Morey 1994; Coppinger & Coppinger 2001; Hare & Tomasello 2005; Wobber et al. 2009).”
• Human-directed gazing behaviour in puppies and adult dogs, Canis lupus familiaris (2011, background): “…(i.e. pointing) is only a product of the more ancient split between wolf and dog, or whether it has been further enhanced by a more recent selection on working dogs, Wobber et al. (2009) compared more versus less wolf-like breeds, which could also be classified as either working with humans or not.”