Independent, but still observant-dog breeds selected for functional independence learn better from a conspecific demonstrator than cooperative breeds in a detour task.

Background: While complex dog-human coexistence has been deeply investigated, there is a relative scarcity of similar knowledge regarding dog-dog interactions. Social learning, a fundamental synchronizing mechanism between dogs and humans, was recently found to be influenced by the functional breed selection of dogs: with the cooperative breeds being more effective learners from a human demonstrator than the independent working breeds were. Here, we investigated whether these differences would also be present when dogs had to learn from another dog and how to effectively perform a detour around a transparent V-shaped obstacle.

Cooperative but Dependent-Functional Breed Selection in Dogs Influences Human-Directed Gazing in a Difficult Object-Manipulation Task.

It is still largely unknown to what extent domestication, ancestry, or recent functional selection are responsible for the behavioral differences in whether dogs look back to a human when presented with a difficult task. Here, we tested whether this ubiquitous human-related response of companion dogs would appear differently in subjects that were selected for either cooperative or independent work tasks. We tested = 71 dogs from 18 cooperative and 18 independent breeds.

Alarm or emotion? intranasal oxytocin helps determine information conveyed by dog barks for adult male human listeners.

Background: Barks play an important role in interspecific communication between dogs and humans, by allowing a reliable perception of the inner state of dogs for human listeners. However, there is growing concern in society regarding the nuisance that barking dogs cause to the surrounding inhabitants. We assumed that at least in part, this nuisance effect can be explained by particular communicative functions of dog barks.