Dogs are somewhat like young human children, study finds
When exploring their environments, dogs treat their owners similar to the way young children treat their parents, new research reveals.
A child gleefully pets a springer spaniel named Hector at the Northern Minnesota English Springer Spaniel Club鈥檚 Fun Trials Saturday in May 2013.
Kelly Humphrey/Brainerd Dispatch/AP
Treating our dogs like our babies might, it turns out, be somewhat reasonable.
A new study has found聽that the relationship between dogs and their owners聽is .
In human parent-child bonding, infants perceive their caregivers as a 鈥渟ecure base鈥� as they begin to explore the world, tentatively reaching out into the unfamiliar with the confidence that someone known is observing their mini-adventure and is waiting to fold them back into what is safe and secure. Now, a study published in 聽has聽tested the confidence-levels of dogs with and without their owners and found that the same 鈥渟ecure base effect鈥� is also found in owner-dog bonding.
To note differences in dog behavior with and without their owners,聽聽and聽colleagues from the Vetmeduni's Messerli Research Institute聽studied the behavior of dogs under three different conditions: "absent owner," "silent owner," and "encouraging owner.鈥� In each of the situations, the dog could earn a food reward by interacting with dog toys.
When the owner was present, the dog tended to pursue the food reward, confidently addressing the dog toy challenges. Whether or not the owner was vocal didn鈥檛 affect the dog鈥檚 behavior; the owner鈥檚 presence was alone was enough to encourage the animal鈥檚 ambitions.
In the 鈥渁bsent owner鈥� part of the experiment, the researchers replaced the animals鈥� caregiver with a stranger to the dog. In that experiment, the dogs largely declined to interact with the strangers and expressed limited interest in achieving the food reward. The scientists proposed that in that situation, the dog lacks the security it needed to bravely face the world and tackle the food reward tasks.
Scientists have proposed that dog might have been our first domesticated animal, sharing a common ancestor with the grey wolf some 15,000 years ago. Vaguely a child-equivalent in some homes, the dog 鈥� with its that registers emotions we can translate into our own language 鈥� has accumulated a number of scientific studies and inherited lore that suggest it can make moral-like decisions.
Two years ago, that dogs learn from their owner鈥檚 facial cues to perform good behavior when their owner is watching and to save the misbehavior until their owner鈥檚 back is turned, like a wised-up child pilfering from the cookie jar.
No word from the pro-cat camp on how this might tilt the cat-dog debate.