Wolf-like or dog-like? A comparison of gazing behaviour across three dog breeds tested in their familiar environments

Human-directed gazing, a keystone in dog–human
communication, has been suggested to derive from both
domestication and breed selection. The influence of genetic
similarity to wolves and selective pressures on human-directed
gazing is still under debate. Here, we used the ‘unsolvable task’
to compare Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs (CWDs, a close-to-wolf
breed), German Shepherd Dogs (GSDs) and Labrador
Retrievers (LRs). In the ‘solvable task’, all dogs learned to
obtain the reward; however, differently from GSDs and LRs,
CWDs rarely gazed at humans. In the ‘unsolvable task’, CWDs
gazed significantly less towards humans compared to LRs but
not to GSDs. Although all dogs were similarly motivated to
explore the apparatus, CWDs and GSDs spent a larger amount
of time in manipulating it compared to LRs. A clear difference
emerged in gazing at the experimenter versus owner. CWDs
gazed preferentially towards the experimenter (the unfamiliar
subject manipulating the food), GSDs towards t...