#dogcognition

How Dogs Have Adapted to Become More Like HumansMost species change over time due to natural selection, which leads to them evolving in ways that better adapt to the environment. Dogs have changed a lot in a relatively short time, due to domestication. We humans took a wild animal -the wolf- and over a few thousand years, changed it by unnatural selection, which is called breeding. For most of the time humans and dogs have been living together, the adaptations were not specifically selected for as breeders do now, but we humans loved certain features that made us want to care for some dogs more than others, and there were other traits and behaviors that caused us to reject some dogs. Dogs that pleased humans were more likely to survive and reproduce. This all makes sense, but you probably don't know how specific some of these features are. Wolves do not smile, or raise their eyebrows to communicate. That's two of the many things modern dogs can do that they developed just to please humans. There are plenty more ways dogs have become human-like because of human selection that might surprise you. Dog cognition researcher Dr. Sarah Byosiere explains how dogs have evolved to be the perfect companion for humans. -via reddit#dog #evolution #selectivebreeding #dogcognition

Experiment Explores Why Dogs Tilt Their HeadsWhen you speak to a dog, and see him tilt his head, you just melt a little inside because it's just plain cute. But why do they do it? We've heard a lot of logical speculation, such as they do it to hear better, to see over their snout, to activate their brains, or maybe it's a learned behavior because we react to it. But new research gives us a clue that it's really a gesture indicating that they are thinking. A canine experiment that wasn't about head-tilting had a group of seven talented border collies retrieving specific toys by name, showing us how many words they know. The dogs already identified as "smart" did much better than the control group of 33 average dogs (most were also border collies). Duh. However, the researchers also noted a lot of head-tilting between the request and the retrieval, so they crunched the numbers. The gifted dogs tilted their heads between the request and the retrieval 43% of the time. The control group only did the head tilt in 2% of trials! This led the researchers to believe that the gesture indicates the dog is calling up a memory and processing the meaning of the words they know. Read more about the research at Science. -via Digg (Image credit: Sommese, A., Miklósi, Á., Pogány, Á. et al. An exploratory analysis of head-tilting in dogs. Anim Cogn (2021)/CC BY 4.0) #dog #dogcognition #headtilt

Study Suggests That Dogs Can Tell When You're Keeping Snacks From Them on PurposeDogs, most of them, are pretty smart. We also know that dogs are very tuned into their beloved humans. This might go even further than we ever thought, in that dogs may be able to intuit our intentions by our behavior, and that they can learn this in human terms about behavior they would never see in other dogs. The average pooch may know when you’re choosing not to give them treats, new research from Germany suggests. The study found that dogs reacted differently when people withheld food from them intentionally or seemingly by accident, indicating that they could tell the difference. The findings could mean that dogs possess an aspect of cognition often considered unique to humans: the ability to acknowledge the inner workings of others.In psychology, there’s a concept known as theory of mind. Put simply, it’s our capacity for recognizing that others around us have their own thoughts, perceptions, and mental states and that these can differ from ours. This knowledge can then help us empathize with other people, predict their behavior, and generally understand them better. Though most everyone seems to have a theory of mind, it’s a skill that doesn’t emerge until we reach our toddler years and continues to develop over time.Read about the experiment that sheds light on the disappointment and blame (or lack of it) that dogs go through when denied a treat at Gizmodo. (Image credit: cogdogblog) #dog #dogcognition #dogintelligence