Puppies get more humans than wolf puppies

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More than 14,000 years of hanging out with humans has endowed dogs with “theory of mind” skills — mental skills that allow them in some contexts to understand what people are thinking and feeling, according to the study published Monday in the journal Current Biology. A previous study found that young domestic pups have “early emerging skills for cooperation (and) communication with humans,” said senior author of the current study Brian Hare, professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University in North Carolina.

But did dogs develop these traits through evolution or are they the product of thousands of years of domestication?

The new study, Hare says, shows “Early emerging skills that appear to be heritable are in fact a product of domestication, because wolves do not have the same evolution or the same pattern of evolution.”

There is limited or inconclusive evidence about whether adult wolves, even if raised by humans shortly after birth, automatically respond to human gestures as dogs do.

So Hare and his team compared 44 canine pups — Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers, and primarily mixed golden lab companions for independence canine companions — and 37 gray wolf pups — from the Minnesota Wildlife Science Center — all of which were between five and 18 weeks old.

10 to 11 days after the wolves were born, they grew up by intimate round-the-clock human contact, including being fed from the hands of caregivers and sleeping in the beds of the caregivers each night.

However, terrier puppies lived with their mothers until weaning at about 6 weeks of age, and with mates until about 8 weeks of age before being sent to live with human families. For the first six to eight weeks of their lives, dogs’ interactions with humans were only when humans had to perform short care tasks.

Most puppies were tested from seven to eight weeks of age, and the majority of wolf puppies were between nine and 13 weeks of age.

The researchers hid a treat in one of the two bowls, then gave a clue to point and stare each wolf dog or pup to help them find the reward. In another test, the researchers placed a wooden block near the bowl the treat was under.

The researchers found that in each case, wolf dogs outperformed wolf pups by picking the exact spot more often—even though wolf dogs spent significantly more time with people.

In addition, 17 out of 31 dogs consistently chose the correct bowl, while zero out of 26 wolf pups was no better than random guessing, according to a press release. Young dogs were also 30 times more likely than wolf pups to approach strangers. Because canines and wolves were equal in terms of memory and impulse control, the results were not related to the “smarter” species, said first study author Hannah Salomons, a doctoral student in Duke University’s Hare Laboratory. statement.

“There are a lot of different ways to be smarter,” she said. “Animals develop cognition in a way that helps them thrive in whatever environment they live in.”

“With the terrier dogs we worked with, if you go into their enclosure, they come together and want to go up on you and lick your face, whereas most wolf pups run into the corner and hide,” Salomons said.

When the researchers served food in closed containers, the wolves relied on themselves to figure out how to get to the food, while the dogs often looked to humans for help.

“Dogs really are one of the most successful species on the planet,” Hare said. “There are some estimates that there are over a billion dogs. They’re on every continent where you find humans. Unfortunately, there are only a few hundred thousand wolves left.”

He added that the findings show why: The dogs’ human interaction skills allowed them to communicate with us.

“Wolves in the wild obviously fear humans, and that doesn’t allow them to have the same kind of relationship. Unfortunately, this means that humans have harassed and hunted wolves and done terrible things, so there aren’t many left of them.”

Future research on the bond between dogs and humans

Hare said the researchers’ discovery is not only exciting because it helps us understand the friendly relationship between dogs and humans, but also because “dogs have a lot of functions” such as helping and detecting.

And the study, he added, “really sets up the possibility to think about how we might use artificial selection to possibly even breed breeds of dogs that might be better at solving some of the problems they solved while they worked.”

Hare said that choosing some dogs for breeding for these purposes is a slightly separate issue from the discussion of pet breeding versus adoption. “The real problem is when people are marketing the kennel and trying to profit and then, you know, trying to increase their margins and their profits by reducing the cost of making sure the dogs really have a good life,” he said.

Hare said the researchers are now interested in studying “how wolves outperform dogs in other kinds of abilities, and it would be interesting to see them.”

“I think this will help people to appreciate and understand wolves more because they are wonderful, and we owe them a huge gratitude because they are not only wonderful in their own right, but help us understand our relationship with dogs and help us get to know ourselves as well.”

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