In order to find food, catch a prey, defend a territory or make a burrow wolves and dogs need to know something about the physical lows of their environment. Often such skills are also referred to as ecological cognition because they may differ among species.

Dogs are able to trace and follow objects both visually and on the basis of smell. The former ability is often referred to in cognitive terms as “object permanence” because it is assumed that such tasks can only be accomplished if the dog is able to build a “mental image” of the object. Such skills could be useful both for the wolf and the dog when they hunt for rapidly moving prey on a complex terrain.

Many other experiments are aimed to find out about the navigation skills of dogs and wolves. There are many interesting anecdotes how wolves find their way around on their territory, how they optimise seemingly their way of approaching the prey, and make short cuts or detours depending on the obstacles they face. It is however more difficult to find the cognitive basis for such skills in the laboratory or at least under controlled condition.

Pet dogs living in the city seem not to be very professional, for example, in relatively simple detour tasks. They need about 5-6 trials to learn how to get a piece of food from behind a 3 m long fence. They seem to have also problems with transferring their knowledge about the detours to other similar situations and it is also not clear how early (“puppyhood”) or general experience may enhance the skills of dogs getting around.

Recent work has also shown that humans’ social and communicative influence also modifies the ability of dogs to process environmental cues. It seems that the selection for enhanced preference for humans and human actions may inhibit the dogs to react optimally to challenges in the environment if manipulated by humans.

 

Further reading

Watson, J.S., Gergely, G., Topál, J., Gácsi, M., Sárközi, Zs., Csányi, V. 2001. Distinguishing logic from association in the solution of an invisible displacement task by children and dogs: Using negation of disjunction. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 115: 219-226. (pdf)

Pongrácz, P., Miklósi, Á., Kubinyi, E., Gurobi, K., Topál, J., Csányi, V. 2001. Social learning in dogs: The effect of a human demonstrator on the performance of dogs (Canis familiaris) in a detour task. Animal Behaviour, 62: 1109-1117. (pdf)

Erdőhegyi, Á., Topál, J., Virányi, Zs., Miklósi Á. 2007. Dog-logic: inferential reasoning in a two-way choice task and its restricted use. Animal Behaviour, 74: 725-737. (pdf)

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