Do Animal Assisted Intervention and pet dogs differ in their showing behavior?

CAVALLI, CAMILA MARÍA; BENTOSELA, MARIANA; CARBALLO, FABRICIO; DZIK, MARINA VICTORIA

Congreso; Animal Behaviour Society Twitter Conference; 2021

Animal Behaviour Society

Dogs are known to engage in showing behavior and indicate the location of hidden rewards to humans. To do so, they gaze towards the target and alternate their gaze between target and observer. However, research has not yet focused on dogs with particular life experiences. Prior studies highlighted the importance of gazing behavior in the communication ofdogs participating in Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI). Our aim was to compare their behavior with that of pet dogs during a showing task featuring hidden food. Results indicate that dogs overall engaged in showing behavior as they gazed more towards a baited pot and alternated their gaze more on showing trials than control ones. However, differences between AAI and pet dogs were minimal. Nevertheless, owners of AAI dogs were more successful than owners of pet dogs in following their dogs' indications. This suggests they may be more skillful readers of their dogs' behavior, which can be crucial to ensure welfare during AAI sessions.