Cross-species Referential Signalling Events in Domestic Dogs (Canis Familiaris)

Overview

Journal Anim Cogn

Publisher Springer

Specialty Veterinary Medicine

Date 2018 May 2

PMID 29713846

Citations 8

Authors

Hannah K Worsley

Sean J OHara

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Referential gestures are used by a signaller to draw a recipient's attention to a specific object, individual or event in the environment. These gestures have received much research attention in relation to human and non-human primates with great apes being shown to possess impressive gestural repertoires. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) meanwhile provide an ideal non-primate candidate for investigating referential signalling due to their unique relationship with humans that centres on non-verbal communication with frequent interaction. Here we observed 37 pet dogs in their own homes. Owners recorded 242 videos containing 47 potential referential gesture events. We analysed those recordings to reveal evidence of 19 referential gestures performed by domestic dogs during everyday communicative bouts with humans, showing that the gestures conform to the five features of referential signalling. Our study exposes impressive gesturing abilities in a non-primate mammal; especially when viewed in the context of the cross-species rather than intraspecific communication.

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