Dogs understand human communication gestures as well as cooperative communication in order to perform tasks. It might not be something we are always aware of but in the case of dog agility or herding dogs this communication comes in very handy in order to give the dog their next task without having to physically lead them there. We have also over the years of domesticating the wild dogs into our current canine companions learned how to interpret signals from our canine companions. We know what it means when our dogs jump up when we have a treat in our hand or when they run over to the door and sit in front of it sometimes they will even sit in front of a toy chest or treat drawer to tell us they want something they cannot get for themselves. There is a question that has been baffling scientists and dog owners alike and that it whether dogs use these communicative behaviors because they recognize human ignorance about a particular issue and want to provide information about it to their humans, or are they simply performing begging behaviors in order to achieve an outcome they desire for themselves.
This question was recently investigated by researchers from the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in order to evaluate the depth of the dog-human communication gestures. The first experiment was designed to assess whether dogs indicate the location of a hidden object not just to ask for it so they can play with a toy or eat a treat but to inform others who are ignorant about the items or event. Dogs were tested either with their owner or with a stranger, and went through multiple rounds of testing. In each round, the dogs were exposed one of the following: their favorite toy, which they played with alone; a non-favorite toy, which was handled by both the human and the dog; a hole puncher, which was not handled by the dog but was used by the human companion; and a vase, which was handled by neither. After 60 s of exposure to the item, the companion left the room and a second person came in and hid the object while the dog looked on. The human companion then returned and attempted to use the dog’s behavior to locate the item. If the dogs were generally interested in informing their human companions, they should have communicated about even the items in which they were uninterested (the hole puncher and vase); if they were just begging for the object, they should have communicated exclusively about the items that were most relevant to them (the two toys).
People were more likely to find hidden objects with the dog’s help than would have been possible by chance alone. This indicates that canine communication gestures are used in order to produce an outcome desirable to the dogs whether it is getting their toy back or helping the human find the other hidden objects. However, dogs’ behaviors were most helpful to their human companions when the hidden object was something the dog had a direct interest in for themselves. They did not communicate with the human in the room as much regardless if it was their human or a complete stranger if the object was only for human interest. This shows that dogs are begging/requesting, rather than providing information to end ignorance. The dogs were generally more communicative with their owners than with strangers; this led owners to have higher overall success rates at finding objects, regardless of type. The study also found that dogs are more willing and able to help their owners then someone they do not know. Dogs do not voluntarily provide information in order to reduce a human companion’s ignorance. They will request items for themselves or engage in general “fetching” behavior in order to help the human find the other objects they are asking for. A very interesting find was that owners’ success rates at finding hidden objects did not decrease over time. This indicates that the dogs remained motivated to offer assistance, even in the case of items in which they were not interested. It is interesting to note that these behaviors are very similar to those of a human child when asked to help find hidden objects.
Over the course of time we have created a domesticated animal that is willing and eager to communicate with their human in order to tell us what they want and that we understand what our dogs are trying to tell us about our environment. Dogs are very attentive to our needs and want to please us which is why we use dogs in so many situations such as Search & Rescue, Service Dogs, and Police Dogs (for bomb sniffing and drug and firearm detections).
For more information about the two studies that took place at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology visit http://www.science20.com/anthrophysis/what_your_dog_isand_isnttrying_tell_you-83191. If you would like to read the full study it can be found http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347211002570
