That dog won't fit: body size awareness in dogs.

ABSTRACT: With very few exceptions, no coherent model of representing the self exists for nonhuman species. According to our hypothesis, understanding of the Self as an object' can also be found in a wide range of animals including the dog, a fast-moving terrestrial predator/scavenger, with highly developed senses and complex cognitive capacity. We tested companion dogs in three experiments in which they faced three different variations of the same physical challenge: passing through an opening in a wall. We predicted that if dogs are capable of representing their own body size, they will react differently when faced with adequate or too small openings. We found that dogs started to move towards and approached the too small openings with significantly longer latencies than the suitable ones; and upo

SUBMITTER: Lenkei R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7018780 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature