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Earlier this year, researchers found new support for this second idea by measuring the extent to which the ability to follow gestures in dog families. Puppies that had a closer relationship with each other scored a similar score on the scoring test, which indicates that they could have been scores. explained in part according to their genetics.
The ability of dogs to perform this task could be the product of domestication. Humans, intentionally or unintentionally, could encourage dogs to be more effective communicators; people can breed their friend’s dogs at will with each other at will or else the nicest individuals could have the greatest success living with humans. Or, the ability could be picked up from the common ancestor of dogs and wolves today. To distinguish between these two options and to limit the impact of environmental factors, the researchers tried to compare similarly bred dogs and wolves. A 2008 study found that dogs did a better job of signaling than wolves, but an article was published the following year failed to repeat that difference.
This new study, which is much larger in sample size and compares to wolves more human contact with dogs less the relationship reinforces the conclusion that dogs are better than wolves, says Juliane Bräuer, head of the DogStudies Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Human History. “The sample size was quite large, especially for wolves,” he says. “Finding wolves to test is always a challenge.”
Dogs ’abilities to follow the signs, then, seem to be a domesticated product – here at work there is an important genetic difference between dogs and wolves. But where the genetics fit into the picture remains an open question. Hare believes that the key element is the reduced evolution of wolves ’natural fear of humans. (“Wolves are giant wusses,” says Callahan-Beckel.) As a pack hunter, wolves need to be able to coordinate with other members of their species. Hare believes that during the domestication process, dogs expanded their potential coordination partner to include people. “Dogs received a skill from wolves to understand others,” he says. “When fear was replaced by an attraction, those skills improved.”
But perhaps dogs have a greater tendency to learn from humans and do so incredibly quickly. In favor of this second option, Wynne warns that older puppies in the study work better than younger ones in signaling work, which suggests that some learning was taking place.
In general, Wynne finds it hard to believe that dogs have a ingrained ability to understand human gestures or human intentions. “It makes no sense to be born with dogs with an innate ability to follow human gestures when our children are not born with the ability to follow human gestures,” he says.
Hare and Wynne agree, however, that there is a significant difference between dogs and wolves, regardless of how they grow: dogs are much more attracted to humans. The wolves raised by Callahan-Beckel and Callahan often, when they are adults, will allow the breeders to rub their bellies and scratch behind their ears. Rare humans, however, are a different story. In the study, puppies were 30 times more likely to touch unknown humans than wolves.
Some wolves will see Callahan-Beckel and Callahan throughout their mother’s life and greet them as a dog greets the owner who arrives home from work. Others, however, reveal their genetic history when they finally see their educators as the leader to throw away. This happened to Callahan-Beckel recently, when Adam, the wolf he had raised, became the leader of his group, and then he decided that he too was the master.
“I still love Adam. I still love him a lot, ”says Callahan-Beckel.“ And I climbed the fence [saying], ‘Oh, Adam, that’s my good boy’ and the fence hits as hard as he can, roaring, tail up, trying to kill me. And it’s just the way they are. “
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