Dataset Information

Do pet dogs (Canis familiaris) follow ostensive and non-ostensive human gaze to distant space and to objects?

ABSTRACT: Dogs are renowned for being skilful at using human-given communicative cues such as pointing. Results are contradictory, however, when it comes to dogs' following human gaze, probably due to methodological discrepancies. Here we investigated whether dogs follow human gaze to one of two food locations better than into distant space even after comparable pre-training. In Experiments 1 and 2, the gazing direction of dogs was recorded in a gaze-following into distant space and in an object-choice task where no choice was allowed, in order to allow a direct comparison between tasks, varying the ostensive nature of the gazes. We found that dogs only followed repeated ostensive human gaze into distant space, whereas they followed all gaze cues in the object-choice task. Dogs followed human gaze better in the object-choice task than when there was no obvious target to look at. In Experiment 3, dogs were tested in another object-choice task and were allowed to approach a container. Ostensive cues facilitated the dogs' following gaze with gaze as well as their choices: we found that dogs in the ostensive group chose the indicated container at chance level, whereas they avoided this container in the non-ostensive group. We propose that dogs may perceive the object-choice task as a competition over food and may interpret non-ostensive gaze as an intentional cue that indicates the experimenter's interest in the food location she has looked at. Whether ostensive cues simply mitigate the competitive perception of this situation or they alter how dogs interpret communicative gaze needs further investigation. Our findings also show that following gaze with one's gaze and actually choosing one of the two containers in an object-choice task need to be considered as different variables. The present study clarifies a number of questions related to gaze-following in dogs and adds to a growing body of evidence showing that human ostensive cues can strongly modify dog behaviour.

SUBMITTER: Duranton C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5541559 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Do pet dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) follow ostensive and non-ostensive human gaze to distant space and to objects?

Duranton Charlotte C Range Friederike F Virányi Zsófia Z

Royal Society open science 20170726 7

Dogs are renowned for being skilful at using human-given communicative cues such as pointing. Results are contradictory, however, when it comes to dogs' following human gaze, probably due to methodological discrepancies. Here we investigated whether dogs follow human gaze to one of two food locations better than into distant space even after comparable pre-training. In Experiments 1 and 2, the gazing direction of dogs was recorded in a gaze-following into distant space and in an object-choice ta ...[more]

PMID: 28791164

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Project description:It is now widely agreed that a positive affective state is a crucial component of animal well-being. The judgment bias test represents a widespread tool used to assess animals' optimistic/pessimistic attitude and to evaluate their emotional state and welfare. Judgment bias tests have been used several times with dogs (Canis familiaris), in most cases using a spatial test with a bowl placed in ambiguous positions located between a relatively positive trained location (P) which contains a baited bowl and a relatively negative trained location (N) which contains an empty bowl. The latency to approach the bowl in the ambiguous locations is an indicator of the dog's expectation of a positive/negative outcome. However, results from such tests are often inconclusive. For the present study, the judgment bias test performance of 51 shelter dogs and 40 pet dogs was thoroughly analysed. A pattern emerged with shelter dogs behaving in a more pessimistic-like way than pet dogs. However, this difference between the two populations was detected only when analysing the raw latencies to reach the locations and not the more commonly applied adjusted score (i.e. average latency values). Furthermore, several methodological caveats were found. First of all, a non-negligible percentage of dogs did not pass the training phase, possibly due to the experimental paradigm not being fully suited for this species. Second, results showed a high intra-dog variability in response to the trained locations, i.e. the dogs' responses were not consistent throughout the test, suggesting that animals may not have fully learned the association between locations and their outcomes. Third, dogs did not always behave differently towards adjacent locations, raising doubts about the animals' ability to discriminate between locations. Finally, a potential influence of the researcher's presence on dogs' performance emerged from analyses. The implications of these findings and potential solutions are discussed.

Project description:BackgroundGreenland sled dogs (GSD) are a unique, genetically isolated population of dogs living under exceptional environmental conditions. Metabolism, and thereby thyroid hormones are affected by multiple factors. Among other activity, energy balance and environmental conditions are important. A breed-specific reference interval (RI) can be useful for diagnostics of potential thyroid-related pathologies. The aim of this study was to establish RIs of the thyroid hormones thyroxin (T4), free thyroxin (fT4), and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) in GSD. In addition to evaluate the effect of sex, age, season, management, and body condition score (BCS) in GSD. Physical exams and cephalic venous blood sampling were performed in the period of 2018-2019 from 265 GSD managed either privately or by the Danish navy. Serum biochemical analyses, including C-reactive protein, were performed and RIs were determined for TSH, T4 and fT4 in only healthy dogs. The RIs were determined using American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology guidelines and the effect of varying factors were evaluated by linear regression and further tested by Mann-Whitney test.Results144 GSD were included in the reference group resulting in RIs: T4: 6.44-48.65 nmol/L; fT4: 3.91-18.51 pmol/L; and TSH: 0.04-0.55 ng/mL. Female GSD had significantly higher concentrations of T4 (P = 0.039) and fT4 (P = 0.015) compared to males; a positive correlation between TSH and aging was found; T4 concentrations were significantly higher (P = 0.003) during summer; and TSH concentrations were lower in GSD managed by the navy (P < 0.0001). BCS was higher (P < 0.0001) in Sirius GSD compared to civilian GSD, and BCS was positively correlated with T4 and negatively correlated with TSH.ConclusionsReference intervals for T4, fT4 and TSH in GSD were established. The RI for T4 and fT4 was lower compared to other breeds. In addition, sex, age, season, management and BCS demonstrated variable effects on thyroid hormones. Our results can be used as a foundation for improving management and further research of GSD.

Dataset Information

Do pet dogs (Canis familiaris) follow ostensive and non-ostensive human gaze to distant space and to objects?

Publications

Do pet dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) follow ostensive and non-ostensive human gaze to distant space and to objects?

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