Free-ranging dogs show age related plasticity in their ability to follow human pointing

Differences in pet dogs’ and captive wolves’ ability to follow human communicative intents have led to the proposition of several hypotheses regarding the possession and development of social cognitive skills in dogs. It is possible that the social cognitive abilities of pet dogs are induced by indirect conditioning through living with humans, and studying free-ranging dogs can provide deeper insights into differentiating between innate abilities and conditioning in dogs. Free-ranging dogs are mostly scavengers, indirectly depending on humans for their sustenance. Humans can act both as food providers and as threats to these dogs, and thus understanding human gestures can be a survival need for the free-ranging dogs. We tested the responsiveness of such dogs in urban areas toward simple human pointing cues using dynamic proximal points. Our experiment showed that pups readily follow proximal pointing and exhibit weaker avoidance to humans, but stop doing so at the later stages of develo...

宠物犬（pet dogs）与圈养狼（captive wolves）在遵循人类交际意图的能力上存在差异，这催生了多项围绕犬类社会认知技能的拥有与发展的假说。宠物犬的社会认知能力或许源于与人类共处过程中的间接条件作用，而对散养犬（free-ranging dogs）的研究，能够帮助我们更深入地区分犬类的先天能力与后天条件作用影响。散养犬多以腐食为生，间接依赖人类获取生存所需的食物资源。人类对于这类犬而言，既可以是食物提供者，也可能构成威胁，因此理解人类的肢体动作或许是散养犬的生存必需。我们针对城市区域内的散养犬开展了实验，测试它们对动态近距离指向这一简单人类指示手势的响应情况。实验结果显示，幼犬会主动跟随近距离指向手势，且对人类的回避行为较弱，但这一行为会在发育后期发生改变……