We know dogs as man¡¯s best friend. However, it seems like dogs have been wired to be human¡¯s friend from the moment they take birth.?
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This is according to a new study by researchers at the University of Arizona who found that puppies were born with human-like social skills that allowed them to communicate with humans from a very early age instead of learning later in life.
For this study, they analysed 98 Labrador retrievers, 23 golden retrievers and 254 labrador golden crosses from 117 litters. Each one of them originated from a similar rearing history and pedigree going back several generations.
They conducted a series of tests, looking at interactions between puppies and humans. One of the tests had the pups look for a hidden treat beneath one of the two overturned cups, after being pointed at by the researcher.?
The pups would do this even after the odour was masked, limiting the pups to not rely on just their noses.?
In another task, researchers started to talk to the puppies in a high-pitched voice, also known as ¡®dog-directed speech¡¯ and looked at how long the puppy looked at the humans.
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Almost all dogs were successful in at least one of the tasks, showcasing their skills from the very beginning. In control tests, when they were not directed, puppies did not rely on the people or look at them for suggestions, indicating that even though puppies may know how to respond to human-initiated communication from the moment they¡¯re born, the ability to think and execute decisions on their own might take time to develop.?
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Dr Bray, one of the lead researchers of the study said, ¡°We show that puppies will reciprocate human social gaze and successfully use the information given by a human in a social context from a very young age and prior to extensive experience with humans. For example, even before puppies have left their littermates to live one-on-one with their volunteer raisers, most of them are able to find hidden food by following a human point to the indicated location.¡±
She added, ¡°All these findings suggest that dogs are biologically prepared for communication with humans. From a young age, dogs display human-like social skills, which have a strong genetic component, meaning these abilities have a strong potential to undergo selection. Our findings might therefore point to an important piece of the domestication story, in that animals with a propensity for communication with our own species might have been selected in the wolf populations that gave rise to dogs.¡±