Do dogs know what humans know? A study into pet dogs' (Canis familiaris) ability to attribute knowledge to an unfamiliar person.

ABSTRACT: Domestic dogs demonstrate sensitivity to human gaze and attentiveness, but evidence is mixed for their understanding of human knowledge, in the sense of understanding what a person has or has not seen. Here we tested whether pet dogs take a human competitor's past visual access into account in a 3-choice food competition task. The dogs (N = 22) observed food being hidden under 2 of 3 cups, and witnessed how their human competitor saw only one baiting. When the human chose first, dogs were expected to avoid the cup she had seen baited; when dogs chose first, they were expected to choose randomly between baited cups, or favour the cup both had seen baited. However, the dogs chose randomly between the baited cups, regardless of who had first choice. The dogs did choose the cup only they had s

SUBMITTER: Noordenbos J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12799639 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature