Puppies ‘catch’ humans more than wolf puppies

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According to the study published Monday in the journal Current Biology, more than 14,000 years spent with humans have given dogs “theory of mind” skills – mental skills that allow them, in some contexts, to understand this. that people think and feel.

A previous study found that young domestic puppies have “emerging skills to cooperate (and) communicate with humans,” said Brian Hare, lead author of this study, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University in Carolina. North.

But have dogs developed these traits through evolution or is it the product of thousands of years of domestication?

The new study, says Hare, shows that “emerging skills that appear to be inherited are actually the product of domestication, as wolves do not have the same development or pattern of development.”

Wolf puppies congregate at the Wildlife Science Center in Minnesota.

There is limited or inconclusive evidence that adult wolves, even if raised by humans soon after birth, spontaneously respond to human gestures just as dogs do.

So Hare and his team compared 44 puppy dogs – Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers, and golden lab mixes primarily from Canine Companions for Independence – and 37 gray wolf puppies – from the Wildlife Science Center in Minnesota – who were all between five and 18 weeks old. .

Ten to 11 days after the wolves were born, they were raised through intimate human contact around the clock, including being fed by the hands of their caregivers and sleeping in their caregivers’ beds each night.

The puppies, however, lived with their mother until weaning at around 6 weeks of age, and with their litter mates until around 8 weeks before being sent to human families. During their first six to eight weeks of life, dogs’ only interactions with humans were when humans had to perform brief guard duties.

Most dog puppies have been tested at seven to eight weeks of age, and the majority of wolf puppies between nine and 13 weeks old.

The researchers hid a treat in one of the two bowls, then gave each wolf dog or puppy a point and look clue to help them find the treat. In another test, the researchers placed a block of wood near the bowl under which the treat was located.

In each condition, the dog puppies outperformed the wolf puppies in choosing the location indicated more often, even though the wolf puppies had spent much more time with people, the researchers found.

Plus, 17 of the 31 dog puppies always picked the right bowl, while zero of the 26 wolf puppies did no better than a random guess, according to a press release. Dog puppies were also 30 times more likely than wolf puppies to approach foreign humans.

Because the dog and wolf puppies were equal in terms of memory and motor impulse control, the results do not concern which species is “the smartest,” said the study’s first author, Hannah Salomons, a doctoral student at the Hare lab at Duke University, in a statement.

“There are many ways to be intelligent. Animals evolve their cognition in a way that will help them be successful no matter what environment they live in,” she said.

Duke University Canine Cognition Center Puppy Kindergarten Spring Class 2020 "pose" for a photo.

“With the puppies we’ve worked with, if you get into their pen, they come together and want to climb on top of you and lick your face, while most of the wolf puppies run around the corner and hide,” Solomon said. .

And when researchers presented food in sealed containers, wolves leaned on themselves to figure out how to access food, while dogs more often turned to humans for help.

“Dogs are truly one of the most successful species on the planet. There is an estimate of over a billion dogs. They are on every continent where you find humans. And sadly, only that remains. a few hundred thousand wolves, ”Hare said.

The results show why: The dogs’ human interaction skills allowed them to bond with us, he added.

“Wolves that live in the wild are obviously afraid of humans, and that doesn’t allow them to have the same kind of relationship. And unfortunately, that means humans have harassed and hunted and done terrible things to wolves. , so there are not many left. ”

Future research on the dog-human link

The researchers’ discovery is not only exciting because it helps us understand the friendly bond between dogs and humans, but also because “dogs have a lot of tasks” such as assisting and scouting, Hare said. .

The Canine Companions for Independence puppies are part of a long-term study funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health to assess how different breeding strategies affect the behavior and cognitive development of service dogs.

The study “really does offer an opportunity to think about how we might use artificial selection to maybe even breed dog lines that could be even better at solving some of the problems they’ve solved while working.” , he added.

Choosing certain dogs for breeding for these purposes is a slightly separate issue from the debate between pet breeding and adoption, Hare said. “The real problem is when people market dog breeding and try to make a profit from it, then, you know, they try to increase their margins and profits by reducing the cost to make sure that the dogs have a very good life, ”he said.

Researchers are now interested in studying “how wolves outperform dogs in other types of abilities, and it will be fun to see,” Hare said.

“I think it will help people appreciate and understand wolves better because they are remarkable, and we owe them a great debt of gratitude because not only are they just wonderful in themselves, but they help us to. understand our relationship with dogs and help us. learn about ourselves, too. ”

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