Free-Ranging Dogs Are Capable of Utilizing Complex Human Pointing Cues.

Debottam Bhattacharjee,Piuli Shit,Mebin George Varghese,Anindita Bhadra,Aayushi Vishnoi,Sarab Mandal

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02818

Abstract

Dogs are one of the most common species to be found as pets and have been subjects of human curiosity, leading to extensive research on their socialization with humans. One of the dominant themes in dog cognition pertains to their capacity for understanding and responding to human referential gestures. The remarkable sociocognitive skills of pet dogs, while interacting with humans, is quite well established. However, studies regarding the free-ranging subpopulations are greatly lacking. The interactions of these dogs with humans are quite complex and multidimensional. For the first time, we tested 160 adult free-ranging dogs to understand their ability to follow relatively complex human referential gestures using dynamic and momentary distal pointing cues. We found that these dogs are capable of following distal pointing cues from humans to locate hidden food rewards. However, approximately half of the population tested showed a lack of tendency to participate even after successful familiarization with the experimental setup. A closer inspection revealed that anxious behavioral states of the individuals were responsible for such an outcome. Finally, we compared the results using data from an earlier study with dynamic proximal cues. We found that free-ranging dogs follow distal cues more accurately compared to proximal cue. We assume that life experiences with humans probably shape personalities of free-ranging dogs, which in turn influence their responsiveness to human communicative gestures.

Highlights

Interspecific communication, employing directional or referential gestures, has widely been studied in the last two decades
50% (30 out of 60), 48% (29 out of 60), and 50% (20 out of 40) of the individuals approached in the dynamic distal cue, momentary distal cue, and control conditions, respectively
Dogs that approached the experimental setup followed both the pointing cues at significantly higher rates, suggesting their ability to rely on complex human referential gestures

Summary

Introduction

Interspecific communication (human–non-human animals), employing directional or referential gestures, has widely been studied in the last two decades. On the other hand, have been shown to differ in utilizing human communicative signals, especially the momentary distal cues, because of less socialization and delayed emergence of such behavior (Gácsi et al, 2009). Both genetic predisposition (through domestication) and human socialization (or lifetime experiences) have impacted and shaped the point-following behavior of canids (Lampe et al, 2017). Most studies attempting to understand the abilities of dogs to comprehend human social cues have primarily focused on pet dogs who depend entirely on their owners for survival Their behavioral outcomes could just be a result of indirect conditioning. While the problem has been dealt with to some extent with studies examining shelter dogs’ response to human pointing cues (Udell et al, 2010; Duranton and Gaunet, 2016), a larger picture can only emerge with quantifying responses of free-ranging dogs, which represent the largest population of dogs in the world (Hughes and Macdonald, 2013)

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