Cooperative Communication with Humans Evolved to Emerge Early in Dogs

Abstract

While we know that dogs evolved from wolves through a process of domestication, it remains unclear how this process may have affected dog cognitive development. Here we tested dog (N=44) and wolf (N=37) puppies, 5-18 weeks old, on a battery of temperament and cognition tasks. Dog puppies were more attracted to humans, read human gestures more skillfully and made more eye contact with humans than wolf puppies. The two species were similarly attracted to objects and performed similarly on nonsocial measures of memory and inhibitory control. These results demonstrate the role of domestication in enhancing the cooperative communication skills of dogs through selection on attraction to humans, which altered developmental pathways.One Sentence SummaryDomestication altered dogs’ developmental pathways to enhance their cooperative communication with humans.

Early-emerging and highly heritable sensitivity to human communication in dogs

“…43 For example, although some wolves have been shown to use human-provided pointing information, 46 there are differences in the timing of acquisition, given that this skill emerges later in development and requires more extensive socialization in wolves than in dogs. 12,13,45 This further supports the idea that through the process of domestication, dogs have evolved a biological preparedness for these types of human social interactions, although the exact mechanisms remain unknown. Given that genetic similarity among breeds also predicts variation in similar social-communicative processes, 14 we hypothesize that genetic variation contributing to these phenotypes has relatively ancient origins and continues to contribute to variance in socialcognitive skills, both within and among modern dog breeds.…”

“…However, studies with experimentally domesticated canids reveal changes in social cognition that arise as a byproduct of selection for tamability, a phenotype believed to have been targeted during dog domestication. 11 Lastly, a heritable basis for social cognition in dogs has been suggested indirectly through comparative studies with wolves 12,13 and across breeds, 14 but direct evidence for genetic contributions to these traits remains elusive. Therefore, there is a critical need for research that can directly assess genetic contributions to these aspects of dog social cognition and inform their potential for evolutionary selection.…”

Comparing wolves and dogs: current status and implications for human ‘self-domestication’

“…In contrast to earlier results [75], recent studies showed that both wolves and dogs are capable of forming attachment bonds with their human caregivers [80][81][82] and, while wolf puppies exhibit greater interest toward human strangers than do dogs [75,76] (but see [83]), this curiosity disappears in adult wolves, and both species prefer to seek and accept physical contact from caregivers rather than from strangers and/or merely familiar people [48,49,78]. However, dogs engage sooner and for longer in positive physical contact with a bonded [84] and familiar [49] human partner than do wolves.…”

“…The claims of the superior socio-cognitive skills of dogs with humans are based on two controversial tasks: following human pointing gestures and the 'impossible task' (Figure 1). While dogs generally outperform wolves in pointing studies ( [13,14,45,64,83] but see [86,87]), pointing might not be perceived as cooperative, but as a command [88]. It might also require experience with humans [89,90], and selection for certain traits may enhance the performance of dogs [91].…”

Did Dog Domestication Contribute to Language Evolution?

“…Accordingly, in the very short time period of the evolution from wolves to dogs, a completely new muscle was a added, the levator anguli oculi medialis, which is responsible for raising the inner eyebrow intensely and which supports facial movements that are interpreted by human caregivers as a social bonding cue, e.g., as a friendly begging ( Kaminski et al, 2019 ; Sexton, 2019 ). In this sense, Salomons et al (2021) tested the cooperative communication abilities of dog and wolf puppies with humans. Their results support a role of domestication in enhancing the cooperative communication skills of dogs with human, involving changes in different developmental pathways.…”