Dog Social Cognition

Posing for the camera

For as long as I can remember, I've had a keen interest in and have been fascinated by my dog’s social cognition. When I was 10, my family got our first dog, an eight-week-old Golden Retriever. She is the cutest dog in the world and I named her Caramel after her golden brown coat.  She has been my best friend ever since and even inspired me to want to become a veterinarian. 

Growing up with her, I have always been intrigued by her ability to communicate. She lets me know her intentions and she understands much of my commands, gestures, and body language. I taught her many new behaviors, starting with the usual commands like "sit," "stay," "come," and "shake" and then games like fetch and even hide ‘n’ seek. Teaching her to play hide ‘n’ seek, I went and hid, with a treat in hand, and then called for her to come look (or sniff) for me. After a short time, she figured out that after she waited, I would call for her, letting her know that it was time for her to search.

I also performed many cooperative communicative experiments with her. She performs excellently on the pointing task, which involves me hiding food in one of two places and indicating to her (by pointing where it is hidden), where I hid the food. As I soon figured out, she represents her species well in that she only understands pointing with my hand. If I indicate where the food is with a novel cue, such as pointing with my foot for example - not something she typically sees - she has a difficult time understanding my gesture. 

Please see the video below for "What do dogs understand?" - A short segment on Dr. Brian Hare of Duke's Canine Cognition Center.