Social learning in dogs: the effect of a human demonstrator on the performance of dogs in a detour task

doi:10.1006/anbe.2001.1866

Animal Behaviour

Volume 62, Issue 6, December 2001, Pages 1109-1117

https://doi.org/10.1006/anbe.2001.1866 Get rights and content

Abstract

We recorded the behaviour of dogs in detour tests, in which an object (a favourite toy) or food was placed behind a V-shaped fence. Dogs were able to master this task; however, they did it more easily when they started from within the fence with the object placed outside it. Repeated detours starting from within the fence did not help the dogs to obtain the object more quickly if in a subsequent trial they started outside the fence with the object placed inside it. While six trials were not enough for the dogs to show significant improvement on their own in detouring the fence from outside, demonstration of this action by humans significantly improved the dogs' performance within two–three trials. Owners and strangers were equally effective as demonstrators. Our experiments show that dogs are able to rely on information provided by human action when confronted with a new task. While they did not copy the exact path of the human demonstrator, they easily adopted the detour behaviour shown by humans to reach their goal.

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^f1: Correspondence: P. Pongrácz, Department of Ethology, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Pázmány Péter sétány l/c, H-1117, Hungary (email:[email protected]).

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