EFFECTS OF LEARNING AND THE OWNERS ON A COMMUNICATIVE TASK IN DOMESTIC DOGS (CANIS FAMILIARIS)

ELGIER, A; JAKOVCEVIC, A.; BARRERA, G; BENTOSELA, M

Buenos Aires

Congreso; 14th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Comparative Psychology; 2008

Domestic dogs are capable of following human cues like gazing or pointing to solve problems like an object choice task, in which they have to choose which container has hidden food. On the other hand, the relationship between dog and owner takes relevancy. Owner coexists with dogs in the same environment, and is the principal source of resources. The principal aim of our study was to evaluate if the dogs behaviour of following a human cue like pointing in the object choice task could be modified by contingencies of reinforcement, like omission and extinction procedures. The second aim was asses if there are differences in the performance of the subjects when the cue was given by the owner or by a stranger. 25 dogs were evaluated and randomly assigned to conditions and procedures. Both groups were tested in the different procedures until they reached 4 consecutive responses of omission and extinction respectively. All subjects were capable of learning both tasks. The presence of the owners improved the performance of the dogs during the omission procedure, but delayed the extinction. Possible mechanisms are discussed to explain these differences.