Free-ranging dogs prefer petting over food in repeated interactions with unfamiliar humans

Abstract

Dogs () are the first species to have been domesticated and, unlike other domesticated species, they have developed a special bond with their owners. The ability to respond to human gestures and language, and the hypersocial behaviours of dogs are considered key factors that have led them to become man's best friend. Free-ranging dogs provide an excellent model system for understanding the dog-human relationship in various social contexts. In India, free-ranging dogs occur in all possible human habitations. They scavenge among garbage, beg for food from humans, give birth in dens close to human habitations, and establish social bonds with people. However, there is ample dog-human conflict on the streets, leading to morbidity and mortality of dogs. Hence, the ability to assess an unfamiliar human before establishing physical contact could be adaptive for dogs, especially in the urban environment. We tested a total of 103 adult dogs to investigate their response to immediate social and long-term food and social rewards. The dogs were provided a choice of obtaining food either from an experimenter's hand or the ground. The dogs avoided making physical contact with the unfamiliar human. While immediate social reward was not effective in changing this response, the long-term test showed a strong effect of social contact. Our results revealed that these dogs tend to build trust based on affection, not food. This study provides significant insights into the dynamics of dog-human interactions on the streets and subsequent changes in behaviour of dogs through the process of learning.

Free-ranging dogs are capable of comprehending complex human pointing cues

“…However, though the proximal pointing cue is considered to be a simpler cue to follow from a completely anthropomorphic perspective to an untrained dog, this might be a more “difficult” situation, with an unfamiliar human constantly pointing at the container, and thereby being in very close proximity to the food source. Adult free-ranging dogs are known to maintain a certain distance from unfamiliar humans and avoid making contact with them 37,38 . It is thus likely that a reduced perception of threat elicited higher response by the dogs to the distal cues, though the proximal cue is likely to be more definitive and less ambiguous as a signal.…”

“…Humans have been found to influence their mortality rate significantly 36 . These dogs were shown to be aversive while making direct physical contact with unfamiliar humans, most probably to minimize the chance of any unprecedented adverse encounter; repeated positive social interactions could establish a strong dog-human relationship 37 . Therefore, varying lifetime experiences can cause individual-level differences in terms of their responsiveness to unfamiliar humans.…”

“Bolder” together – response to human social cues in free-ranging dogs

“…In India, solitary dogs on streets are more prone to receive threatening signals from humans as compared to groups of dogs (personal observations). It could also be a consequence of the higher perception of threat or shyness towards unfamiliar humans that solitary dogs avoid making direct physical contact with unfamiliar humans (Bhattacharjee et al, 2017b). Studies show that animals living in groups are less vigilant than their solitary counterparts in various ecological contexts (Delm, 1990; Dimond and Lazarus, 1974; Quenette and Gerard, 1992).…”

“…In India, free-ranging dogs are often considered as a menace and consequently beaten, shooed away, and even killed (Paul et al, 2016). Although they depend heavily on humans for sustenance, avoidance of direct contact with unfamiliar humans is also observed in free-ranging dogs, but social facilitation from humans can help dogs build trust with strangers (Bhattacharjee et al, 2017b). These dogs have also been shown to adjust their point-following behaviour flexibly based on the reliability of humans (Bhattacharjee et al, 2017a).…”

Cooperation, only for high rewards – a solvable task-based study on free-ranging dogs

“…They live without direct human supervision in human-dominated habitats (Cafazzo, Valsecchi, Bonanni & Natoli, 2010; Hughes & Macdonald, 2013; Sen Majumder et al, 2014a; Vanak & Gompper, 2009). Several studies have been carried out with individual free-ranging dogs to understand their physical and social cognitive abilities, in contexts like food preference (Bhadra et al 2016), task-solving (Bhattacharjee, Dasgupta, et al, 2017; Brubaker, Dasgupta, Bhattacharjee, Bhadra, & Udell, 2017) and interspecific association with humans (Bhattacharjee et al 2017b, c), but similar studies have not been conducted with groups of free-ranging dogs.…”