Disentangling help-seeking and giving up: differential human-directed gazing by dogs in a modified unsolvable task paradigm

Abstract

Dogs are renowned for ‘looking back’ at humans when confronted with a problem, but it has been questioned whether this implies help-seeking or giving up. We tested 56 pet dogs from two breed groups (herding dogs and terriers) in a modified unsolvable task paradigm. One reward type (food or toy) was enclosed in a box, while the respective other reward was accessible. With both reward types, human-directed gazing in relation to the box was significantly positively correlated with interaction with the box, as long as an alternative was available. This suggests that both behaviours served to attain the unavailable reward and reflected individual motivation for the inaccessible vs the accessible reward. Furthermore, we varied whether the owner or the experimenter was responsible for handling the rewards. In the owner-responsible group, dogs rarely gazed at the experimenter. In the experimenter-responsible group, dogs preferentially directed box-related gazing (prior to or after looking at or interacting with the box) at the owner. Still, they gazed at the experimenter significantly longer than the owner-responsible group. Conversely, toy-related gazing was directed significantly more at the experimenter. Thus, dogs adjust their gazing behaviour according to the people’s responsibility and their current goal (help-seeking vs play). Gaze duration did not differ between herding dogs and terriers. We conclude that dogs use gazing at humans’ faces as a social problem-solving strategy, but not all gazing can be classified as such. Dogs’ human-directed gazing is influenced by the social relationships with the persons, situational associations, and context (unsolvable problem vs play).

Breed differences in social cognition, inhibitory control, and spatial problem-solving ability in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris)

“…Our results replicate the findings of various studies which have investigated differences between individual breeds in the V-detour task 19 , understanding of human gestures 7,8 , and the unsolvable task 8,18 . In contrast, most studies which have failed to find breed differences have compared breed groups 10,11,13,19,49,50 . It is possible that potential differences between breeds may have been missed in these studies, since (as shown by our current study) behavioural variation within breed groups can be substantial.…”

Impact of Training Discipline and Experience on Inhibitory Control and Cognitive Performance in Pet Dogs

“…Videos were analysed for behavioural measures. These measures consisted of recording the total amount of time, in seconds, that a subject gazed directly at their human handler as a measure of owner attachment [38], as well as the frequency of stress indicators performed, which included lip licking, yawning, and vocalisations such as barking or whining [39,40]. Sniffing behaviour can also be a displacement activity and an indicator of stress [41,42]; however, as we would also expect dogs to explore a new environment using olfaction, we did not include this as a stress indicator.…”

The use of gaze to study cognition: limitations, solutions, and applications to animal welfare

“…A third option is to consider behavioral validation of gaze responses. In a task examining canine ( Canis familiaris ) help-seeking, Hirschi et al (2022) differentiated potentially different meanings of gaze with time spent interacting with a food puzzle: They predicted that if human-directed gaze was an indication of social problem-solving, then it would be correlated with time spent interacting with the box. Alternatively, if gaze indicated giving up, then it would be negatively related to time spent on the box.…”