If you think your dog can read your mind, you're right. Because pooches and people
have kept company for hundreds of generations, Canis familiaris is hard-wired
to pick up human social cues, a US anthropologist claims.
According
to Brian Hare of Harvard University, the insight will help trace
the evolution of dogs, and may help explain the origins of autism
in people and point towards possible therapies. "The first
diagnostic test for autism is the inability to use social cues,"
he said. "Autists are very poor at reading things like eye-gaze
or pointing, something called joint attention." Not
so your average mutt, he says. "It looks like dogs evolved
an unusual ability to read human gestures and cues, and manipulate
and predict human behavior. They were selected to do that through
domestication," Dr. Hare told the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, meeting in Seattle - and he has the
evidence to prove it.
In
the first two of four studies, Dr. Hare and colleagues in Germany
and Hungary found dogs are better at a test of their ability to
interpret social cues than even our primate cousins the chimpanzees,
and the dog's closest relation, the wolf. In the test, based on
one developed to identify autistic infants, food is hidden beneath
one of two cups about a meter apart. The animal is then shown
where the food is by the experimenter, who looks or gestures at
the right location. "The wolves and the chimps didn't use
the cues in the task, but the dogs were awesome," Dr. Hare
said. Clearly,
wolves and chimpanzees are not stupid, and dogs did not inherit
their skill from ancestral wolves. So Dr. Hare next tested the
possibility that dogs learn their ability through "tremendous
exposure to humans".
He
gave two groups of puppies nine to 20 weeks old the same test.
One group was raised by a family, while the other was raised in
a kennel with little human contact. The isolated puppies performed
just as well as dogs raised in a family, scotching the exposure
hypothesis. Dr. Hare says his latest research confirmed his belief
that human contact during domestication created the selective
pressure driving the evolution of this canine expertise.
The
cup test was given to six New Guinea singing dogs, a species related
to the dingo and isolated from humans. The six domestic dogs were
near-perfect, but the singers failed. This suggests that without
human evolutionary pressure, the singing dog lost its ability
to read human minds.
~By
Leigh Deighton & Elizabeth Colman - TheAustralian.News.com.au
Measuring
Your Dog's Intelligence
Most
owners of dogs are curious to know how intelligent there dog is.
A number of none too scientific studies have been published ranking
particular breeds as to their intelligence. In addition, simple
tests that purport to determine whether one's own dog is smart
are also available. The study that is most often referred to is
one presented in a book by Stanley Coren of the University of
British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada entitled a The
Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions, and Inner
Lives of Our Canine Companions. The author believes
there are 3 types of intelligence displayed by dogs, namely, adaptive
intelligence (the ability to problem solve); instinctive intelligence
(genetically-dictated behaviors); and obedience intelligence (the
ability to obey commands). A number of do-it-yourself tests for
dog owners to measure their particular pet's adaptive intelligence
can be found on the internet and in Dr. Coren's book as well.
These involve things like:
(1)
Letting your dog sniff some food he likes, then placing the food
under an empty soup can and timing how long it takes for him to
knock over the can to get the food;
(2)
Having your dog sniff a large bath towel, then throwing the towel
over his head and measuring how long it takes for him to free
himself; and
(3)
staring intently into your sitting dog's face and when he looks
at you, counting silently to three, then smiling broadly, and
seeing whether he comes to you, tail a-wagging or not, or whether
he does not move at all, or moves away from you.
Whether
tests such as these provide any real feedback as to the actual
intelligence of one's dog is very debatable. Really, as a dog
owner, what should interest you is your pet's willingness to obey
your commands and his overall temperament. And for people who
do not yet own a dog but are seriously considering getting one,
the best advice is to speak with a couple of local dog breeders,
tell them what characteristics you are seeking in a dog and then
heed their advice.
~By
Colin Albert
GET
OUR
