1. Dog Cognition

2. Some statistics on dogs as pets
40% of U.S. households have at least 1 dog
70+ million dogs in U.S. alone
Estimated $45 billion/year industry
Why dogs?
Behavior appears to be attuned to humans
As companion animals, show “loyalty”, “compassion”, and other cognitive-emotional behaviors

3. Why study dog cognition?
Unlike other domestic animals, wild conspecific is readily available
Data are available domestication of a wild canine species (Fox) which demonstrates evolution of many “dog-like” traits.
Appear to have cognitive abilities that are more advanced than most non-human primates.
Question is why DO dogs have good cognitive abilities?
Two competing theories to explain evolution of cognition in dogs:
Domestication hypothesis (Hare & Tomasello, 2005)
Two-Stage hypothesis (Wynne)

4. What does research say? Dogs can count: Dogs can problem solve:
Numerical competence and ability to discriminate more and less
Dogs about as good at numerical competence as the great apes!
Dogs can problem solve:
Get a stick through an obstacle
Solve simple puzzles
Their BEST skill? Social Skills
Greater degree of socialization = better skills
Follow human gestures
Can be fooled by humans pointing wrong direction
Dogs may perform actions that are counterproductive for themselves if humans ask for that action

5. Sensitivity to human social cues
Dogs show distinct sensitivity to human social stimuli
Reliably alter behavior in presence of such stimuli to obtain reinforcement
These behaviors emerge after instruction or mediation of human companion
Theory of Mind and Dogs: Heyes (1998): “…an animal with a theory of mind believes that mental states play a causal role in generating behavior and infers the presence of mental states in others by observing their appearance and behavior under various circumstances”.
Several sets of data point to such an ability in dogs

6. Dogs can…..
Selectively avoid forbidden food, but grab it when the owner is not looking
Beg from an individual that can see them, rather than their owner who cannot.
Learn via Social learning and Imitation
Watch human for cues to obtain food/toy
Can be taught to imitate: “do it”
Follow a human point: sensitive to
Arm point
Head turning
Nodding
Bowing
Glancing in direction of target
Show word learning

8. Lupfer-Johnson and Ross
Dogs, along with just a few other species, are able to learn from conspecifics
Human children
Red winged blackbirds
Dwarf (Siberian) but not Syrian hamsters
Rats
What is common element: All are social species
Social behaviors important for feeding
Even in dogs!
Pavlov’s work showed that feeding can be conditioned
Socializing while searching for food is advantageous
Help one another
All more likely to eat when work together
Working together increases likelihood of survival for individual and the group
Examined whether food preferences could be acquired from interacting with recently fed conspecifics

9. Method 22 dogs in boarding facility (doggie day care)
1 dog served as demonstrator for 12 total demonstrator-observer pairs
All other dogs served once as either demonstrator or observer
Used flavored food: basil or Thyme to dog food
Procedure
Demonstrator dog ate basil or thyme food in separate room
Then, entered group room and allowed to interact with observer dog for 20 minutes
Then observer dog offered both thyme and basil food; had to choose one to eat
Food weighed to determine how much they ate of each food.

10. Results One way ANOVA on the data
Dogs were significantly more likely to eat the flavor the demonstrator dog ate
Dogs with basil demonstrators ate significantly more basil food than those with thyme demonstrators (apparently thyme is icky)

11. Scent Detection as Cognition
Dogs have great noses, obviously
Can we use this talent for human good?
Bomb detection
Contraband detection; drugs and fruit
Disease Detection
Wildlife counting?
Scat detection of endangered wildlife?

12. Training Scat Detection
Oldenburg, Schoon and Heitkonig, 2016
Malinois (that is a Belgian Shepherd)
Scat from 3 groups of otters
Used a radial arm maze to teach
Decoy scents of fox, rabbit, hare, cattle
Careful handling
Criteria: 5/6 samples correct
Examined generalization from one sample of otters to another (with discrimination from decoy scents)

13. Training Scat Detection
Could the dog do it?
Originally, dog could not generalize
Went back and retrained
After retraining, found she could do it
Part of problem (as someone who does scent work) was their training procedure
Did not use errorless learning
Made it WAY too difficult
Simon Gabois was mastered training program and Canadian Wildlife programs use dogs to find and detect presence of many endangered species

14. Dogs show Perspective Taking
Can do perspective taking
Change reaction to forbidden food (Call, et a, 2003; Tomasello, 2008)
Change where drop ball depending on position of human
Begging responses change depending on actions of human
Attempt to communicate with humans:
Move objects closer
Indicate location of items
Ask for help with problem
Occurs as early as 8 weeks
Service dogs are better!
Miklosi, et al, 2003; Viranyi, et al, 2006; Topal, et al, 2006

16. Is your choice my Choice?
Study by Prato-Previde, Marshall-Pescini and Valsecchi (Italians!).
Interested in how dogs’ owners may influence how dogs choose between bigger and smaller choice
Food choice is particularly strong
Most dogs food driven
Choose bigger (evolutionary drive, too!)
But, also want to “please” their owners

17. Method 54 dog-owner dyads Three different tasks:
Mostly pure breeds
Some mixed breeds
Three different tasks:
Bigger smaller choice
Bigger smaller choice with human pointing to smaller
1:1 choice with human pointing to a particular choice
Also gave the CBARQ assessment
Several subscales on aggression, excitation, separation anxiety, general fears
Did not feed dogs for several hours before study

18. Results Dependent variable: what choice the dogs made
Free choice condition
74% chose large quantity more often
18% chose smaller
8% showed no preference

19. Results 1:1 condition: Bigger/Smaller owners’ preference
82% chose owners choice
6% chose opposite plate
12% showed no preference
Bigger/Smaller owners’ preference
32% chose larger
32% chose owner’s choice
36% chose both equally often

20. Other Effects Gender differences: no differences
Age effects: older dogs were likely to be more accurate
Training Effects: no effects
Location effects: indoors better than outdoors
CBARQ: dogs more likely to follow owner preference were more likely to have higher separation anxiety scores

21. Why choose owner’s preference?
What has years of socialization selected dogs to do?
Attend to owners
“please” owners by obeying commands, doing what owners desire
Dogs are selected to both
Attend to humans
Choose most food

22. Choice of Target when Begging (Povinelli and Eddy, 1996):
Dogs were trained to beg from a human for food
Offered choice of a blindfolded human or a human that could see them
(for control, also a human with the blindfold over the mouth, nose, around the neck)
Dogs preferred the human with no blindfold over the eyes; no difference between this an person with blindfold who could see
Only chimps, bonobos also do this
Povllelli, et al, 1990; Heyes, 1993
Dogs, like chimps, use human behavior for cues to food location
Humans pointed, turned head or just turned eyes to look at location of hidden food
Dogs could use all three cues to determine where the food was located

23. Expansion: NOT a Clever Hans Trick Held, et al
Expansion: NOT a Clever Hans Trick Held, et al., 2001; Ashton and Cooper (in Cooper et al, 2003)
Dogs could use errors as clues, as well
Dogs were blindfolded or not
Watched/not watched model get a hidden food
Those who could watch did better
Had other dogs watch the blindfolded dogs find the food
Blindfolded dogs made many mistakes before found food
Those dogs who watched avoided the areas that the food was not and went more directly to the final food location, avoiding the errors

25. Dogs show social modeling
Can model other dogs
Not as good as model humans
Snout contact provides information (Lupfer-Johnson)
Very good at modeling off of humans
Action matching: Do as I do
Topal, et al, 2006; Huber, et al, 2009; Range, et al, 20070

26. Very simple, but important, Study!
Clear demonstration of dog following conspecific modeling!
Claudia Fugazza and Adam Miklósi (Eötvös Loránd, University, Budapest, Hungary)
Do As I Do: Using Social Learning to Train Dogs

28. Karen Overall, 2016
Dr. Overall is director of Veterinary Behavioral Medicine at Texas A&M and one of first board certified veterinary behaviorists
Wants trainers and veterinarians to understand
HOW memory works
HOW medication and nutrition affects learning and memory in canines

29. Understanding memory LTP: long term potentiation
When we learn, repeated stimulation of a neuron and the neural circuit results in structural changes in the neuron itself
Dendritic growth
Dopamine and Glutamate are critical neurotransmitters
Takes repeated trials to form these circuits and get LTP
Important reward and memory brain structures
Amygdala
Nucleus Accumbens
Frontal lobes of cerebral cortex
Yes, even in dogs!

30. Understanding memory
Medications and environmental events may affect how learning and memory occurs
Antidepressants and anxiolytics come in three general categories
Benzodiazepines
Tricyclic antidepressants
SSRIs/SNRIs
Yes, these are used in dogs!
Affect how dogs learn and remember
Can inhibit learning about “bad things”, reduce anxiety
But can also inhibit reward learning
Need to understand these effects as deal with dog behavior problems

31. Nutrition matters
Several important amino acids for brain growth and learning, particularly long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)
Arochidonic acid (ARA)
Docosahexonoic acid (DHA)
Eicosahexanoic acid (EHA)
Important, if not critical, for early brain development
ARA: protect cells in hippocampus from oxidative stress
DHA: encourage development-stage-specific associational learning
May be involved in some canine behavioral disorders
E.g., Aggressive behavior in GSD: lower DHA
PUFAs protect from oxidative stress, preventing overstimulation of anxiety circuits

32. Dogs get Dementia! Canine Cognitive Disorder
Long term effects of oxidative stress
Reduces ability of LTP
Reduced astrocytes in brain
Lower glutamate
Increase in amyloid deposits (plaque)
Shifts in oxygen and energy use in brain
VERY similar to human dementias!
Ketogenic diets and other dietary interventions may reduce canine dementia…may also help people

33. Why study dog cognition/behavior?
Dogs are an integral part of life with humans
60% of households have a dog
Estimated that Americans will spend $52.87 billion on pets in 2012
Pet spending has increased every year since it was $17 billion in 1994.
More and more dogs used as assistance and therapy dogs
People feel strong bond with dogs: Research suggests have same bond as a human family member

34. Why study dog cognition/behavior?
Recent research suggests dogs may function cognitively as high or higher than the great apes (our closest genetic relative)
Dog cognitive behavior appears to have “co-evolved” with similar behavior in humans
Evidence of shared genes for some behaviors and disorders
Disease processes are highly similar

35. Why study dog cognition/behavior?
Research also shows that variables that affect human learning and stress affect dogs in very similar ways
Understanding canine cognition, social perception and the disease processes that affect these behaviors gives us a window into human behavior!
Dogs are a window into the human soul!