Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Dogs ‘Just Get’ Humans in Ways Other Animals Can’t, Evolutionary Scientists Conclude
Study Finds ^ | JULY 17, 2021 | Study Finds

Posted on 07/18/2021 3:52:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Dogs really are “man’s best friend” and “get” humans in a way other animals simply can’t relate to. Sorry “Game of Thrones” fans, a new study finds even the dog’s closest relatives — wolf pups — don’t gel with people the same way.

Researchers from Duke University say 14,000 years of domestication plays a big part in this. In fact, man’s best friend has actually evolved to understand human gestures and look to humans for help in a way that no other animals do.

Study authors, who compared wolf pups raised by humans to dogs who had barely any contact with people, discovered that dogs still outperform their wolf counterparts in tests of their understanding and co-operation with humans. The team behind the research adds their results show dogs instinctively understand people.

“This study really solidifies the evidence that the social genius of dogs is a product of domestication,” says Dr. Brian Hare, a professor of evolutionary anthropology, in a university release.

It’s this ability, Hare says, which makes dogs such great service animals.

🔊4 “It is something they are really born prepared to do,” the researcher adds.

Much like human infants, the team finds puppies intuitively understand what a human is doing when they point at something. Wolf puppies, on the other hand, did not pick up on this.

“We think it indicates a really important element of social cognition, which is that others are trying to help you,” Hare explains.

“Dogs are born with this innate ability to understand that we’re communicating with them and we’re trying to cooperate with them,” doctoral student Hannah Salomons adds.

Dogs know people can help them, no matter what In one test, researchers hid a treat in one of two bowls, then gave each dog or wolf puppy a clue to help them find the food. In some trials, the researchers pointed and gazed in the direction of the hidden food. For the others, they placed a small wooden block beside the right spot — a gesture the puppies had never seen before — to show them where they hid the treat.

The results reveal that, even with no specific training, dog puppies as young as eight weeks-old still understand where to go. Researchers add dogs were also twice as likely to get it right in comparison to wolf puppies around the same age who spent more time with people.

More than half (17 out of 31) dog puppies consistently went to the right bowl while none out of the 26 human-reared wolf pups did better than a random guess. Control trials showed the puppies weren’t simply sniffing out the food. Even more impressively, many of the dog puppies got it right on their first try. Absolutely no training necessary, the dogs just got what humans were doing. Despite the results, Salomons says this isn’t about which species is “smarter.”

It’s not about intelligence, it’s about evolution Dog puppies and wolf puppies proved equally adept in tests of other cognitive abilities, such as memory and motor impulse control, which involved making a detour around transparent obstacles to get food. It was only when it came to the puppies’ people-reading skills that the differences became clear. “There’s lots of different ways to be smart,” Salomons explains. “Animals evolve cognition in a way that will help them succeed in whatever environment they’re living in.”

Other tests show that dog puppies are also 30 times more likely than wolf pups to approach a stranger.

“With the dog puppies we worked with, if you walk into their enclosure they gather around and want to climb on you and lick your face, whereas most of the wolf puppies run to the corner and hide,” the student researcher continues.

When presented with food inside a sealed container, the wolf pups generally tried to solve the problem on their own. Conversely, the dog puppies spent more time turning to people for help, looking them in the eye as if to say “I’m stuck, can you fix this?”

Proving that the history between humans and dogs goes way back in time Dr. Hare believes the research offers some of the strongest evidence yet of what’s known as the “domestication hypothesis.” Somewhere between 12,000 and 40,000 years ago, long before dogs learned to fetch, they shared an ancestor with modern wolves. How these feared predators transformed into man’s best friend is still a bit of a mystery.

One theory is that, when humans and wolves first met, only the friendliest wolves would have been tolerated and gotten close enough to scavenge on early human leftovers instead of running away. Whereas the shyer, meaner wolves might go hungry, the friendlier ones would survive and pass on the genes that made them less fearful or aggressive toward humans.

The theory is that this continued generation after generation, until the wolf’s descendants became masters at gauging the intentions of people they interact with by deciphering their gestures and social cues.

The findings appear in the journal Current Biology.


TOPICS: Pets/Animals; Science
KEYWORDS: dogs; evolution; notevolution; wolves
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last

1 posted on 07/18/2021 3:52:05 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Good stuff. Dogs are the very best gift from God.


2 posted on 07/18/2021 3:56:14 PM PDT by MarMema
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarMema

and Cats are Evil ,LOL


3 posted on 07/18/2021 3:57:39 PM PDT by butlerweave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

When I point, the dog looks at my finger.

Well, after 14 years, our present dog has just started to look where I am pointing.


4 posted on 07/18/2021 4:01:35 PM PDT by Cold Heart
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

The “Mark of Cain”
The dog was a gift from God made out of mercy to Cain.
My dogs have kept me out of all sorts of trouble over the years, I’m really glad they can’t talk.

I don’t imagine I would be alive if not for them.


5 posted on 07/18/2021 4:01:36 PM PDT by Tolk2112
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarMema

The authors of that study won’t acknowledge that, though (meaning God).


6 posted on 07/18/2021 4:03:02 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

The more people I meet the more I love my dog.


7 posted on 07/18/2021 4:05:21 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

wonder what results this same study would have in china...


8 posted on 07/18/2021 4:12:47 PM PDT by heavy metal (smiling improves your face value as well as making people wonder what the hell you're up to... 😁)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

I’ve never owned a dog but looked after some and became good friends with others. Their behavior always fascinated me. In my youth I read Konrad Lorenz’ “King Solomon’s Ring” where he dealt with some somewhat mysterious dog interactions with humans.

I currently have on my reading list Rupert Sheldrake’s “Dogs That Know When Their Owners are Coming Home”. The thesis is that there might be some sort of telepathy between dogs and humans. I’ve heard some interesting anecdotes from dog owners that do make me wonder.


9 posted on 07/18/2021 4:12:47 PM PDT by KamperKen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dragnet2

My dog never calls me a racist and never tells me to be a test subject for an experimental vaccine.

That already puts him far ahead of most humans!


10 posted on 07/18/2021 4:13:47 PM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

“Researchers from Duke University say 14,000 years of domestication plays a big part in this.” How was that determined? Answer: it wasn’t.


11 posted on 07/18/2021 4:13:49 PM PDT by Fungi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Dogs really are “man’s best friend” and “get” humans in a way other animals simply can’t relate to.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Not true.

Many different kinds of animals relate to humans as fully as dogs. Horses, parrots, dolphins to name but a few.


12 posted on 07/18/2021 4:16:21 PM PDT by Candor7 ((Obama Fascism:http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html) )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Dogs certainly occupy an interesting place in human existence.

I read a study a while back where they had people wear special glasses that could track the movements of their eyes precisely, and they found that when two people encounter each other, both eyes of each person simultaneously focus one eye of the other person (I think they said the right eye but can’t remember)

It happens so quickly that we don’t know we do it, and it isn’t noticeable, but the instruments picked it up.

They ended up testing a bunch of other animals of all sizes, from gorillas and chimps down to cows and cats...and they only found one other creature that does that exact same thing of focusing on one eye: You guessed it...dogs.

In that same article they also mentioned an experiment very much like this one you posted where they would put a treat under an upturned bucket, and have a little shell game with two identical, empty upturned buckets.

A human would gesture towards the bucket with the treat, and try to get the animal to go to it and get the invisible treat by overturning the bucket. They tried it with chimps, birds, cats, etc.

None of them would take the cue of the human pointing to the bucket with the treat under it. Except for dogs.

They took a little puppy, and the puppy picked it up immediately when the person pointed at it, literally on the first try.

Further, the person didn’t even have to point, they could simply look. More remarkable, they didn’t even have to linger with the look. They could just flash their eyes for a split second at the bucket with the treat, and the puppy would go unerringly to it.

Dogs have lived around humans so long that they are tuned into us, emotionally and physically. So they are a little bit different than other animals in this respect.


13 posted on 07/18/2021 4:16:54 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists are The Droplet of Sewage in a gallon of ultra-pure clean water.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Life without dogs would be very, very boring.


14 posted on 07/18/2021 4:23:06 PM PDT by 43north (Its hard to stop a man when he knows he's right and he keeps on comin'.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rlmorel

Dogs and human’s eyes co-evolved to communicate with each other - dogs helped humans to beat the neanderthals.


15 posted on 07/18/2021 4:25:16 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Tolk2112

I agree that dogs are a gift from God, but I don’t recall dogs having anything to do with Cain. Where is that in Scripture, please?


16 posted on 07/18/2021 4:27:07 PM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

https://mobile.twitter.com/livefreedet/status/1413249558503727105


17 posted on 07/18/2021 4:29:42 PM PDT by combat_boots (Hi God bless Israel and all who protect and defend her. Merry Christmas! In God We Trust! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: butlerweave
and Cats are Evil ,LOL

Cats are wonderful, and in my experience, far more communicative than dogs.
18 posted on 07/18/2021 4:31:55 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana (“At first you go bankrupt slowly, then all at once.” -- Hemingway)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: cgbg
My dog never calls me a racist and never tells me to be a test subject for an experimental vaccine.

Ahh, but has he called you a speciesist or demanded you pay him repawrations? Hmmmm?

19 posted on 07/18/2021 4:32:01 PM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Dogs are shameless con artists. My dogs know exactly what buttons to push.


20 posted on 07/18/2021 4:36:40 PM PDT by kabar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson