translated from Spanish: Dogs are born prepared to communicate with people, study suggests

It is well known the great ability of dogs to interact with subtle human gestures, such as following signs with their hands or immediately recognizing when someone is talking to them. However, scientists still discuss whether these animals were born with these skills or whether they learn them over time by trial and error.
A new study in Current Biology found that genetics plays a huge role in canines’ interactive abilities with people, and some start life at a more advanced stage than others.
Emily Bray, a researcher at the University of Arizona and lead author of the paper, said a key test scientists use is to see how well animals understand human finger-pointing gestures.
Previous studies have shown that dogs understand them much better than chimpanzees, our closest relatives in the animal kingdom. However, some argued that these traits arose as a result of domestication, while others argued that since dogs live in close contact with humans, “they have a front-row place for all of our interactions,” Bray said.
Observation of puppy behavior
To solve this question, Bray and his colleagues realized that they needed to observe the puppies, which have been much less exposed to people. So they partnered with Canine Companions, a service dog organization that provided them with 375 specimens of goldador, labrador and golden retriever.
In one of the tests performed, a puppy had to identify whether in a glass face down there was a prize available or not. Bray called the puppies, while making eye contact and pointing his finger at the glass that hid the treat.
Puppies chose the right glass 67% of the time, well above the expected 50%. In another experiment, Bray placed a small box next to the container with the treat, and the puppies managed to understand the track 72% of the time.
Puppy performance did not increase significantly when repeating the experiments, reinforcing the idea that the skills are more innate than learned.
To exclude the possibility that the puppies were getting carried away by their sense of smell, the team conducted an experiment in which Bray remained motionless and let the puppies search for themselves. In this test, they only succeeded half the time, which answers randomly.
Bray said the findings helped shed light on the dogs’ past as they were domesticated thousands of years ago. However, it is still unclear whether our ancestors bred dogs for their specific abilities, or whether they simply raised dogs that were friendly and these individuals were more inclined to follow our example.

Original source in Spanish

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