Abstract
In the field of dog cognition research, many studies assume that their subjects have multimodal recognition of their owner: Experiments using the face or voice of the person have proliferated. An outstanding question is whether owned domestic dogs represent the people with whom they live via smell. Olfaction is a principle sensory modality for dogs, and there is evidence that it is integral to recognition of conspecifics. In the current study, we investigated whether owned dogs spontaneously (without training) distinguished their owner's odor from a stranger's odor. Using natural body odor captured on a t-shirt, we found that dogs habituated to a familiar odor and dishabituated to an unfamiliar odor. This finding begins to answer the question of how dogs recognize and represent humans, including their owners.
Highlights
In the field of dog cognition research, many studies assume that their subjects have multimodal recognition of their owner: Experiments using the face or voice of the person have proliferated
We investigated whether owned dogs spontaneously distinguished their owner's odor from a stranger's odor
Using natural body odor captured on a t-shirt, we found that dogs habituated to a familiar odor and dishabituated to an unfamiliar odor
Summary
In the field of dog cognition research, many studies assume that their subjects have multimodal recognition of their owner: Experiments using the face or voice of the person have proliferated. Using natural body odor captured on a t-shirt, we found that dogs habituated to a familiar odor and dishabituated to an unfamiliar odor This finding begins to answer the question of how dogs recognize and represent humans, including their owners. Domestic dogs are skilled social actors interspecifically with humans. They are able to interpret gestural, visual, and auditory information from humans (Hecht & Horowitz, 2015; Miklósi et al, 1998) and have been demonstrated to interpret visual and auditory emotional information, such as facial expressions and crying or laughing, appropriately (e.g., Müller et al, 2015; Yong & Ruffman, 2014). In the current study we begin to ask how dogs recognize and represent the humans with whom they live. There are certainly other sensory cues that could corroborate dogs' identification of where a human was or is, odor is recognized to be their primary source of information
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