Training for eye contact modulates gaze following in dogs

Area of Science:

• Canine cognition
• Animal behavior
• Social cognition

Background:

• Following human gaze is a socially facilitated orientation response observed in human infants.
• Dogs exhibit skills in reading human cues in foraging contexts but evidence for following gaze into distant space was lacking.
• Previous research suggested dogs do not follow gaze into distant space, unlike human infants.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if dogs can follow human gaze into distant space.
• To determine the effects of age and training on dogs' gaze-following propensity.
• To compare gaze-following abilities in trained vs. untrained dogs.

Main Methods:

• Tested 145 Border Collies (6 months to 14 years) on gaze-following in test and control conditions.
• Compared gaze-following before and after short-term eye contact training.
• Used a control group trained to touch a ball with their paw to assess training specificity.

Main Results:

• Provided the first evidence that dogs can follow human gaze into distant space.
• No significant age effect on gaze following, though youngest and oldest were more distractible.
• Extensive lifelong training and short-term eye contact training decreased gaze following and increased face fixation duration.

Conclusions:

• Dog gaze following into distant space is modulated by training, specifically eye contact training.
• Eye contact training creates a competing tendency to fixate the face, hindering gaze following.
• Training may explain why dogs appear to perform less adeptly at gaze following compared to other species.