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

Abstract

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. We tested dogs from 28 independent and 19 cooperative breeds in three consecutive trials. In the control groups, all dogs had to detour on their own the obstacle. In the dog demonstration groups, in trial 1, the subjects had to detour on their own, but before the next two trials, a trained dog showed them the solution.

Results: We found that the performance of the two breed groups was the same in the without demonstration groups. However, after observing the dog demonstrator, the independent dogs learned the task more successfully than the cooperative breeds did. In the case of the independent working breeds, detour latencies significantly dropped along the consecutive trials, and these dogs also showed higher rate of successful detours after observing the demonstrator dog's action than in the control group.

Conclusions: This is the first study where the consequences of functional breed selection were confirmed in a scenario that involved conspecific social learning in dogs. The results fit well to the ecologically valid framework of the evolutionary past of dog breed formation, in which cooperative breeds were selected for their interactivity with humans, whereas independent breeds often had to work together with their conspecifics.

Keywords: Conspecific demonstrator; Functional breed selection; Social learning; Working dogs.

Fig. 1

Cumulative proportions of independent (a N = 22 and c N = 36) and cooperative working dogs (b N = 25 and d N = 33) that performed a successful detour (reaching the reward) in the three trials of the experiment. a and b show the reward latencies in the control (no demonstration) condition, and c and d show the results in case of dog demonstration

Fig. 2

The frequency of looking at the humans during the test. Coop/nodemo = cooperative dogs without demonstration (N = 25); Ind/nodemo = independent dogs without demonstration (N = 22); Coop/demo = cooperative dogs with demonstration (N = 33); Ind/demo = independent dogs with demonstration (N = 36). EMM, estimated marginal means

Fig. 3

Schematic drawing of the experimental setup. Measurements of the V-shaped fence and the distance of the starting point are given in meters. The route of the dog demonstrator is symbolized with the ‘white dogs’