Body Awareness Does Not Need a Pedigree: Mixed-Breed Dogs Rely More on Self-Representation Than Social Learning in a Spatial Task.

ABSTRACT: Body awareness allows the individual to negotiate spatial tasks by referencing their own body. Here, we tested whether biologically meaningful factors, such as an alternative solution (detour around an obstacle) and learning from a human demonstrator, would affect dogs' reliance on their body size in an aperture test. We hypothesized that the dogs would choose the socially reinforced solution over a shortcut, and they would choose the shortcut when the opening was comfortably large. We tested N = 45 adult, mixed-breed dogs, by using a 3 m long, transparent fence. The dogs had three trials with closed doors and then three trials with either a small (but passable) or a large open door. In the demonstration group the experimenter performed a detour before the first three trials, then we opene

SUBMITTER: Dobos P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11816050 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature