The Effect of Domestication and Experience on the Social Interaction of Dogs and Wolves With a Human Companion.

ABSTRACT: The results of current wolf-dog studies on human-directed behaviors seem to suggest that domestication has acted on dogs' general attitudes and not on specific socio-cognitive skills. A recent hypothesis suggests that domestication may have increased dogs' overall sociability (hypersociability hypothesis). The aim of the present study was to test one aspect of the hypersociability hypothesis, whereby dogs should be more interested in social human contact compared to wolves, and to investigate the relative roles of both domestication and experience on the value that dogs attribute to human social contact. We compared equally raised wolves and dogs kept at the Wolf Science Center (WSCw, WSCd) but also dogs with different human socialization experiences i.e., pet dogs and free-ranging dogs. W

SUBMITTER: Lazzaroni M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7197371 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature