Body size awareness matters when dogs decide whether to detour an obstacle or opt for a shortcut.

Body-awareness is one of the fundamental modules of self-representation. We investigated how body-awareness could contribute to dogs' decision making in a novel spatial problem where multiple solutions are possible. Family dogs (N = 68) had to obtain a treat from behind a transparent fence. They had two options: either detour around the fence (7 m), or take a shortcut through a doorway (2 m). We had three conditions: small door open, large door open, and doors closed. Our results indicated that dogs assess the size of the doorway, and if they find it too small, they decide to detour instead, while in the case of the open large door, they rather opted for the shortcut without hesitation. Shorter headed dogs tended to choose open doors more often, while longer headed dogs rather chose detours, probably because of their better peripheral vision. While body size awareness did not manifest differently in dogs with short or long heads, we showed for the first time a connection between head shape and physical cognition in dogs. We showed that dogs rely on their body-awareness in a naturalistic setting where multiple solutions exist simultaneously. Dogs make decisions without lengthy trial-and-error learning and choose between options based on their body-awareness.

Separation-related behavior of dogs shows association with their reactions to everyday situations that may elicit frustration or fear.

Separation related disorder in dogs is a multi-faceted phenomenon. Dogs can react to the absence of their owner due to different inner states such as fear, panic or frustration. We hypothesized that dogs that are prone to frustration or fearfulness in other contexts would show a different behavioral response to separation from the owner. We investigated the association between inner states in different contexts and separation behaviors by combining a questionnaire with a separation test. Fear-related questionnaire components were rather associated with whining and the absence of barking. Dogs that received higher scores in the demanding component of the questionnaire, which might be in association of the frustration threshold of the dog, barked more and were more likely to scratch the door. Finally, dogs that were more prone to phobic reactions whined somewhat more and tried to escape. We provide empirical support for the assumption that separation-related behavioral responses of dogs might be triggered by different emotions.

Occurrences of non-linear phenomena and vocal harshness in dog whines as indicators of stress and ageing.

During social interactions, acoustic parameters of tetrapods' vocalisations reflect the emotional state of the caller. Higher levels of spectral noise and the occurrence of irregularities (non-linear phenomena NLP) might be negative arousal indicators in alarm calls, although less is known about other distress vocalisations. Family dogs experience different levels of stress during separation from their owner and may vocalise extensively. Analysing their whines can provide evidence for the relationship between arousal and NLP. We recorded 167 family dogs' separation behaviour including vocalisations, assessed their stress level based on behaviour and tested how these, their individual features, and owner reported separation-related problems (SRP) relate to their whines' (N = 4086) spectral noise and NLP. Dogs with SRP produced NLP whines more likely. More active dogs and dogs that tried to escape produced noisier whines. Older dogs' whines were more harmonic than younger ones', but they also showed a higher NLP ratio. Our results show that vocal harshness and NLP are associated with arousal in contact calls, and thus might function as stress indicators. The higher occurrence of NLP in older dogs irrespective to separation stress suggests loss in precise neural control of the larynx, and hence can be a potential ageing indicator.

Dogs (Canis familiaris) recognize their own body as a physical obstacle.

Mental representations of one's own body provide useful reference when negotiating physical environmental challenges. Body-awareness is a neuro-ontogenetic precursor for higher order self-representation, but there is a lack of an ecologically valid experimental approach to it among nonhuman species. We tested dogs (N = 32) in the 'body as an obstacle' task. They had to pick up and give an object to their owner, whilst standing on a small mat. In the test condition we attached the object to the mat, thus the dogs had to leave the mat because otherwise they could not lift the object. Dogs came off the mat more frequently and sooner in the test condition, than in the main control condition, where the object was attached to the ground. This is the first convincing evidence of body awareness through the understanding of the consequence of own actions in a species where previously no higher-order self-representation capacity was found. We urge for an ecologically valid approach, and following of bottom-up methods, in studying modularly constructed self-representation.

Adult, intensively socialized wolves show features of attachment behaviour to their handler.

Dogs' attachment towards humans might be the core of their social skillset, yet the origins of their ability to build such a bond are still unclear. Here we show that adult, hand-reared wolves, similarly to dogs, form individualized relationship with their handler. During separation from their handler, wolves, much like family dogs, showed signs of higher-level stress and contact seeking behaviour, compared to when an unfamiliar person left them. They also used their handler as a secure base, suggesting that the ability to form interspecific social bonds could have been present already in the common ancestor of dogs and wolves. We propose that their capacity to form at least some features of attachment with humans may stem from the ability to form social bond with pack members. This might have been then re-directed to humans during early domestication, providing the basis for the evolution of other socio-cognitive abilities in dogs.

Mental representation and episodic-like memory of own actions in dogs.

We investigated whether dogs remember their spontaneous past actions relying on episodic-like memory. Dogs were trained to repeat a small set of actions upon request. Then we tested them on their ability to repeat other actions produced by themselves, including actions performed spontaneously in everyday situations. Dogs repeated their own actions after delays ranging from a few seconds to 1 hour, with their performance showing a decay typical of episodic memory. The combined evidence of representing own actions and using episodic-like memory to recall them suggests a far more complex representation of a key feature of the self than previously attributed to dogs. Our method is applicable to various species, paving the way for comparative investigations on the evolution and complexity of self-representation.

Social behavior in dog puppies: Breed differences and the effect of rearing conditions.

INTRODUCTION: Most of the studies investigating the effect of early rearing environment in dogs used laboratory dogs and reported that early experiences markedly affect the puppies' behavior. However, the subjects of these experiments cannot be considered as representatives of family dogs. METHODS: In this study, we investigated whether different raising conditions shape social behavior toward humans in 8-week-old family dog puppies of two breeds, Labrador and Czechoslovakian wolf dog. The puppies were tested in a series of tests that represented typical situations of family dogs. RESULTS: We found that Czechoslovakian wolf dog puppies were more active than Labrador puppies in general, as they were more likely to explore the environment and the objects and spent more time doing so. Tendency to gaze at humans also varied between breeds, but in a context-specific way. Additionally, puppies housed separately from their mother interacted more with toys, puppies housed in a kennel tended to stay closer to the experimenter than puppies raised in the house, and puppies housed in a kennel tended to stay in the proximity of the experimenter more than puppies raised in the house. CONCLUSIONS: Our results provide evidence for early keeping conditions influencing social behavior and also highlight breed differences in puppies' behavior. Whether these differences are due to different developmental patterns and/or behavioral predispositions remains to be explored.

Fear vs. frustration - Possible factors behind canine separation related behaviour.

The signs of separation related problems (SRP) may vary according to the inner state that triggers them - for example we found earlier that dogs with owner-reported SRP were characterized with a predominance of whining during a short isolation from the owner, meanwhile barking occurred independently of the owner-reported SRP status. Based on the theory that the owner represents a resource for the dog we hypothesise that there is an association between the permissive and inconsistent behaviour of the owner and the reduced frustration threshold in the dog, which consequently will show specific signs of SRP. In our study, personality traits of the owner and the dog were measured with a questionnaire, while the separation behaviour was observed with an outdoor test. We found that dogs that rather barked than whined in the separation test had more likely a lenient owner. Dogs with owner-reported SRP whined less frequently than non-SRP dogs if they had lenient owners. The connection between the owner's permissiveness and the type of emitted vocalisation supports the theory that the owner's attitude towards the dog can be associated with the dogs' frustration-related SRP signs as they tend to respond with similar behaviours that occur in other frustrating situations.

The behaviour of overweight dogs shows similarity with personality traits of overweight humans.

Excessive food intake and the resulting excess weight gain is a growing problem in human and canine populations. Dogs, due to their shared living environment with humans, may provide a beneficial model to study the causes and consequences of obesity. Here, we make use of two well-established research paradigms (two-way choice paradigm and cognitive bias test), previously applied with dogs, to investigate the role of obesity and obesity-prone breeds for food responsiveness. We found no evidence of breed differences in food responsiveness due to one breed being more prone to obesity than another. Breed differences found in this study, however, can be explained by working dog status, i.e. whether the dog works in cooperation with, or independently from, humans. Our results also confirm that overweight dogs, as opposed to normal weight dogs, tried to maximize food intake from the higher quality food and hesitated to do the task when the food reward was uncertain. These results are very similar to those expected from the parallel models that exist between certain personality traits and being overweight in humans, suggesting that dogs are indeed a promising model for experimentally investigating obesity in humans.