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Pet domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are generally considered successful on object choice tasks, reliably following human points to a target. However, defining the specific topography of the point types utilized and assessing the potential for dogs to generalize their responses across similar point types has received little attention. In Experiment 1, we assessed pet dogs’ performance on an object choice task utilizing nine different point types that varied across the dimensions of movement, duration, and distance. These dimensions reliably predicted the performance of pet dogs on this task. In Experiment 2, pet dogs presented with nine different point types in the order of increasing difficulty performed better on more difficult point types than both naive dogs and dogs experiencing the nine points in the order of decreasing difficulty. In Experiment 3, we manipulated the attentional state of the experimenter (as in perspective taking studies) and found that human orientation was not a strong predictor of performance on pointing tasks. The results of this study indicate that dogs do not reliably follow all point types without additional training or experience. Furthermore, dogs appear to continuously learn about the dimensions of human points, adjusting their behavior accordingly, even over the course of experimental testing. These findings bring claims of pet dogs’ spontaneous success on pointing tasks into question. The ability to learn about, and respond flexibly to, human gestures may benefit pet dogs living in human homes more than a spontaneous responsiveness to specific gesture types.

The authors examined the ability of domestic dogs to use human body cues (gestures) and equivalentsized nonhuman cues to find hidden food in an object choice paradigm. In Experiment 1 the authors addressed the importance of the human element of the cue, and the effects of size, topography, and familiarity on dogs' success in using cues. Experiment 2 further explored the role of the human as cue-giver, and the impact of a change in the experimenter's attentional state during cue presentation. This included a systematic test of the role inanimate tokens play as cues apart from human placement. Our results indicate that dogs are more sensitive to human cues than equivalent nonhuman cues, and that the size of the cue is a critical element in determining dogs' success in following it. Keywords: domestic dog, gestures, token use, social behavior

In this paper I outline the drawbacks with the two main behavioural approaches to animal behaviour problems and argue that each alone is insufficient to underpin a field of clinical animal behaviour. Applied ethology offers an interest in an animal's spontaneous behaviour in natural contexts, understood within an ecological and evolutionary framework but lacks an awareness of mechanisms that can be manipulated to modify the behaviour of individual animals. Behaviourism in the form of Applied Behavior Analysis offers a toolkit of techniques for modifying the behaviour of individual animals, but has seldom been applied to non-human species, and often overlooks phylogenetic aspects of behaviour. Notwithstanding the historical animosities between the two fields of animal behaviour they are philosophically highly compatible — both being empiricist schools stemming ultimately from Darwin's insights. Though each individually is incomplete, I argue that an integrated approach that synthesizes the strengths of each holds great promise in helping the many animals who need our assistance to survive and thrive in human-dominated environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study conducted by Clive Wynne, director of Arizona State University's Canine Science Collaboratory, found dogs' attractiveness to humans peaks at roughly 8 weeks, the same point in time at [...]

Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think. Marc Hauser. Henry Holt and Co., 2000. $25. Anyone writing about animal psychology for a general audience is confronted at the outset by an [...]

Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is broadly accepted among biologists, but its implications for the study of cognition are far from clear. Few within the scientific pale would [...]

The prevailing view that there is significant cognitive continuity between humans and other animals is a result of misinterpretations of the role of evolution, combined with anthropomorphism. This combination has often resulted in an over-interpretation of data from animal experiments. Comparative psychology should do what the name indicates: study the cognitive capacities of different species empirically, without naive evolutionary presuppositions.

Animal Talk: Breaking the Codes of Animal Language. Tim Friend. xii + 274 pp. Free Press, 2004. $25. It's just before dawn halfway across the Pacific, and science writer Tim [...]