Human socialization influences point following behaviour of free-ranging dogs

Animals of different taxa can read and respond to various human
communicative signals. Such a socio-cognitive mechanism facilitates
animals to acquire information and helps them react in a context-dependent
manner. Of particular interest are the socio-cognitive skills of dogs and
their remarkable sensitivity to human social cues. Recent developments
have highlighted human socialization as one of the critical factors
enabling dogs to respond to human communicative cues. However, not all dog
populations have the same degree of socialization; this raises the
question of whether “less” socialized dogs can read and use information
from human cues. Free-ranging dogs are arguably the least socialized dog
population, found primarily in developing countries. Unlike pets,
free-ranging dogs engage in complex and multidimensional relationships
with humans, which directly or indirectly impact their survival. In order
to avoid potential adversities, contextual recognition of human actions is
of paramount importance for these dogs, especially while interacting with
an unfamiliar human being. Here, we investigated adult free-ranging
dogs' behaviour in the context of communication with humans, using a
point-following experiment. Our findings suggest that socialization has a
strong positive effect on the likelihood of free-ranging dogs’
point-following tendencies. Additionally, positively socialized dogs
relied on humans ignoring deception as opposed to dogs without
socialization. Finally, we emphasized the implications of such different
behavioural strategies in light of their socio-ecology.