The Dog's Eyes Have It

BBC ^ | 6-3-2003 | Katharine Armey

[blam]

The dog's eyes have it

By Katharine Arney

Clever canines can do something which not even our closest relative, the chimp, can manage.

Thousands of years spent in human company

They can follow the human gaze or a pointing hand, figure out what it is we are looking at and seek out the target.

Dogs have spent thousands of years living with humans so a Hungarian research team set out to investigate whether this cunning ability came from wolves, the genetic ancestors of today's dogs, or developed during domestication.

Dr Adam Miklosi, at Eotvos University in Budapest, compared the abilities of dogs with hand-reared wolves to find hidden food from human cues, such as pointing.

These experiments are the first ever performed with such highly "humanised" wolves, brought up with round-the-clock care from volunteers in Dr Miklosi's department.

Bait on a rope

The wolves could find the food when their handler either tapped the correct hiding place or pointed from a close distance.

They also eventually learnt to track down their dinner by following pointing from a distance.

Dogs had no trouble with any of the tasks.

However, the real difference came when the researchers tested the dogs and wolves in a tricky situation.

Food was hidden in a bin or on the end of a rope, and the animals got used to opening the bin or pulling the rope to get the bait.

But when the bin was sealed shut, or the rope tied down, the main contrast between the two became clear.

Hand-me down

Dogs frequently looked back at their master while wolves just kept their heads down and tried to solve the problem.

Wild wolves generally tend not to look at human faces, and not even careful hand-rearing of the wolves could change this behaviour.

In contrast, dogs have a tendency to follow the human gaze as they are accustomed to looking at our faces for clues.

This difference in the behaviour between the humanised wolves and dogs tells us that they must have picked up this ability during domestication, over the past 15,000 years.

Different intelligence

Dr Miklosi said: "Looking at the gaze or engaging in eye contact is a typical human signal, so dogs could be said to be using a behaviour that is analogous to ours."

It has been suggested that the ability to follow a gaze demonstrates an understanding of mental states, indicating a "higher mind".

Although many dog owners would claim their pets are almost human, Dr Miklosi suggests "it is very difficult to prove whether these behavioural features correspond to human behaviour.

"I would not say that dogs have a higher intelligence but a different one. Dogs are said to be 'dumb' animals because they are provided for by humans.

"But we think that dogs have adapted to the human and acquired skills to survive here.

"As we know, one needs social skills to survive among humans, so it seems that dogs have acquired them, too."

The research is published in the journal Current Biology.

[EggsAckley]

We're trying to train a 14 month old golden retriever which has been abused and neglected, and is totally untrained. This post gives me hope!

[PatrickHenry]

Dog thread.

[palmer]

When my friend's dog sees his master laughing, he pees.

[Laura Earl]

Hope things work out well for you.

[Laura Earl]

Flurry's parents have a rat terrier that pees when he walks in their house.

[EggsAckley]

Thank you. He showed up on Saturday, emaciated, flea ridden, many small wounds, 15 pounds under weight. I know where he lived but I'll be damned if I'll turn him back over to those idiots. The vet said he's extremely malnourished. Probably has been for most of his life. And the lack of training and neutering implies neglect. Lovely dog; very sweet, very smart.

[Xenalyte]

Not the Dread Boston Salty - he stares at the end of your finger like there's a fajita hanging off it.

But then, he's grown up around three vile felines, so perhaps there's a reason.

[Consort]

Where's the Clinton connection?

[Laura Earl]

I'm glad he found you. Take care of that baby. And may the evil folks who mistreated him burn in hell!

[rabidralph]

At last, research worth spending money on.

[Mears]

I guess my little Sheltie isn't too bright. If I point she looks at my finger but if I pretend to throw something she'll look in the direction of where the "something" would have landed.


It works for us!!!

[small_l_libertarian]

Good luck with your dog - it's going to take a ton of patience, but it will be worth the effort and time. It's a very cool thing that you're doing.

[Under the Radar]

When my friend's dog sees his master laughing, he pees.

That is a bad sign... :-(

[EggsAckley]

Thank you for the encouragement. He IS going to be a handful, but definitely worth it.

[ancient_geezer]

Dogs are said to be 'dumb' animals because they are provided for by humans.

One is sometimes tempted to wonder just which is the "dumb" one in the relationship :O|

[blam]

"I know where he lived but I'll be damned if I'll turn him back over to those idiots."

God bless you. We had an incident last week of two dogs dying of starvation at the end of their chains in the owners yard. The owners have been arrested. (Two other badly emaciated dogs survived).

[Hatteras]

We had an old family Sheltie that used to chase helicopters. There was a perfectly arcing path from the gate on one side of the house around back to the gate on the other side of the house.

He never caught any... too bad, he would have been one proud puppy.

Currently, our Black Lab, Libby, will chase a ball back into the woods, if she can't come up with it she'll come back to the edge of the woods and look for me, I'll point left or right (like in the field trials) and she'll bound back into the woods in the correct direction until she picks up the scent.

Now, Chester, our Shih-Tzu just waits until Libby gets back and drops the ball at my feet. He'll grab it and jump up on the deck bench and dare Libby to try and get it...

[ffusco]

a sign of abuse? Nervous dog confusing lasughing with hostility.

[LizardQueen]

I started training my Lab on hand signals when she was a puppy. Never kept up with it as she turned out to be too blase' about retrieving to hunt well (now she's too old, fat, and spoiled :::lol::), but she will still look back at me for direction if she's looking for something and can't find it out in the grass.

LQ