Abstract
In apes, four criteria are set to explore referential and intentional communication: (1) successive visual orienting between a partner and distant targets, (2) the presence of apparent attention-getting behaviours, (3) the requirement of an audience to exhibit the behaviours, and (4) the influence of the direction of attention of an observer on the behaviours. The present study aimed at identifying these criteria in behaviours used by dogs in communicative episodes with their owner when their toy is out of reach, i.e. gaze at a hidden target or at the owner, gaze alternation between a hidden target and the owner, vocalisations and contacts. In this study, an additional variable was analysed: the position of the dog in relation to the location of the target. Dogs witnessed the hiding of a favourite toy, in a place where they could not get access to. We analysed how dogs engaged in communicative deictic behaviours in the presence of their owner; four heights of the target were tested. To control for the motivational effects of the toy on the dogs’ behaviour and for the referential nature of the behaviours, observations were staged where only the toy or only the owner was present, for one of the four heights. The results show that gazing at the container and gaze alternation were used as functionally referential and intentional communicative behaviours. Behavioural patterns of dog position, the new variable, fulfilled the operational criteria for functionally referential behaviour and a subset of operational criteria for intentional communication: the dogs used their own position as a local enhancement signal. Finally, our results suggest that the dogs gazed at their owner at optimal locations in the experimental area, with respect to the target height and their owner’s (or their own) line of gaze.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and conducted at the ‘Laboratoire Eco-Anthropologie et Ethnobiologie’ (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle) and Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire Maison Alfort (Paris, France). The experiment complies with the current laws in France for animal and human research. Authors thank the pet dog owner dyads for their cooperation. Authors are especially grateful to S. Steiger who performed the experiment; part of her 2nd year of Master thesis training session was used for this paper. We also thank S. Steiger, S. Deldalle and E. Jarsaillon for their help in the analysis of the videos, and C. Savalli-Redigolo and Fernanda Torello for helpful comments on earlier versions.
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Gaunet, F., Deputte, B.L. Functionally referential and intentional communication in the domestic dog: effects of spatial and social contexts. Anim Cogn 14, 849–860 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-011-0418-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-011-0418-1