Dogs can figure out things that even chimpanzees can't do. Our science reporter tested her puppy Hound
Studying the skills of a six-month-old dog like Calisto can help clarify which parts of communication are unique to humans.
It was a cold winter day and I was standing in a room watching my dog stare at two flowerpots. I'm about to get the answer to an urgent question: Is my puppy a smart girl?
Dogs have been our companions for thousands of years, being domesticated sometime between 15,000 and 30,000 years ago. And the link is enduring: According to the latest data from the Pet Food Manufacturers Association, 33 percent of households have a dog.
But in addition to fulfilling the role of detecting cute family hooligans from Covid, scientists who study how dogs think, express themselves and communicate with humans say dogs can also teach us about themselves.
So the Dog Awareness Centre at the University of Portsmouth (UK) came with a calistow, a flat coated hound and a bag full of Frankfurt sausages to learn how to do it.
The dog struggles with the concept of "object permanent" – but Calisto seems to have done a good job with the task. Photo: Sarah Lee/The Guardian
We start with a mission that ostensibly reminiscent of cup and ball games that small crooks like. Amy West, a PhD student at the center, placed two pots a few meters in front of Calisto, each with something underneath. However, there is actually only one containing delicious food.
West pointed to the pan of sausage lurking underneath, and I gave up Calisto's lead. The puppy went straight to the right pot.
According to Dr Juliane Kaminski, a reader of comparative psychology at the University of Portsmouth, this is not unexpected.
"Chimpanzees are our closest relatives on the fly — they completely ignore these gestures from humans," she said. "But dogs don't."
She added that this appeared to be the result of domestication, with even puppies younger than Calisto showing the same response, but wolves did not — even though they were raised by humans.
"Dogs are chosen to pay attention to our gestures and messages from us," she said.
Kaminski added that a key question is whether dogs and children understand gestures in the same way.
"In a sense, it also helps us better understand our own species," she said, adding that comparisons with other animals — especially dogs — help shed light on which aspects of human communication are unique.
In the experiment that followed, Callisto watched as West placed the cheese under one jar and found the other jar empty. West then exchanged jars around.
The experiment investigated whether dogs understood the concept of "object permanence" — realizing that in this case, the snack had moved with the pot.
"We've done this to a fair number of dogs, and they're all struggling," Kaminsky said.
However, Calisto chose the right pot in three-quarters of attempts. Kaminsky was cautious. Maybe Calisto was too close to the pot to smell the food, she said.
While many dogs found the experiment difficult, it also yielded insights. Some of Kaminksi's most famous works were in collaboration with the Border Collie Rico, a dog with an incredible ability to learn the names of objects.
"I basically found him on German TV," she said.
At first, Kaminski thought Rico was picking the right object based on human cues —similar to the case of "Clever Hans," a horse that seemed to possess incredible intelligence.
But Kaminski's work shows that Rico does use spoken language to select specific objects: he learned labels for more than 200 projects. And he's not the only dog with this ability, as many research teams have shown in different breeds.
Kaminski and his colleagues are now looking for other similar canids, and they recently launched a project called "Finding Rico."
"I don't want us to find more than 50 dogs around the world who can do that," Kaminski said.
But while Rico is smart at learning labels, Kaminski notes that he's having trouble thinking about object persistence. The intelligence of canines seems complicated.
Kaminsky said: "It's not that we think we have an Einstein dog in front of us as omniscient. "We think our dogs have special skills or a set of special skills that enable them to be very good at learning labels."
Calisto's skill seems to be pulling the puppy's eyes. But that's perhaps not surprising — Kaminsky's research also shows that when someone looks at them, dogs develop more facial expressions, especially raising their eyebrows, which makes their eyes look bigger. Was it intentional?
"I think they have some voluntary control over that," Kaminsky said. "But I don't think they've learned to modify their faces in a particular way to get a specific response from their owners."
Kaminsky said eyebrow movements may have been chosen unconsciously by humans, perhaps because it makes dogs look like babies. In other studies, she and her team are investigating the matter, including whether the sport has special significance for dogs.
Did Kaminsky's work change her view of canine intelligence? She noted that while some say dogs are just as smart as two-year-olds, others take the opposite position, suggesting that dogs can't think flexibly.
"I think it's just being confirmed time and time again that the facts are somewhere in the middle," Kaminsky said. "And we're still at the very beginning of what they really know."