4 research outputs found
The effect of development and individual differences in pointing comprehension of dogs
In spite of the rather diVerent procedures actually
used in comparative studies to test the ability of diVerent
species to rely on the human pointing gesture, there is
no debate on the high performance of dogs in such tasks.
Very little is known, however, on the course through which
they acquire this ability or the probable factors inXuencing
the process. Important developmental questions have
remained unsolved and also some methodological concerns
should be addressed before we can convincingly argue for
one interpretation or another. In this study we tested 180
dogs of diVerent age (from 2 months to adults) to investigate
their performance in the human distal momentary
pointing gesture. The results, analyzed at both the group
and the individual levels, showed no diVerence in the performance
according to age, indicating that in dogs the comprehension
of the human pointing may require only very
limited and rapid early learning to fully develop. Interestingly,
neither the keeping conditions nor the time spent in
active interaction with the owner, and not even some special
(agility) training for using human visual cues, had signiWcant
eVect on the success and explained individual
diVerences. The performance of the dogs was rather stable
over time: during the 20 trials within a session and even
when subsamples of diVerent age were repeatedly tested.
Considering that in spite of the general success at the group
level, more than half of the dogs were not successful at the
individual level, we revealed alternative “decision-making
rules” other than following the pointing gesture of the
experimenter