Watched or not: Overimitation in dogs under different attentional states

Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) have been documented to 'overimitate' humans - a form of social learning - by copying their causally-irrelevant actions. It is suggested that this behaviour results from social, affiliative motivations. Dogs have also been known to behave differently when they are being watched (or not) by humans, such as by following commands better (or worse). In this study, we tested whether dogs' copying behaviour would also be sensitive to their caregiver's attentional states. The subject's caregiver demonstrated irrelevant and relevant actions in the dot-touching overimitation task, then during trials the caregiver was either watching their dog or turned away. Our results revealed no difference in dogs' irrelevant-action copying; however, we found that dogs approached the dots less per trial when their caregiver was watching them. Dogs also copied their caregiver's leftward sliding of a door (to obtain a food reward) more accurately when they were being watched by their caregiver. Finally, dogs who copied the irrelevant action did so more often after obtaining their food reward, which supports that these dogs may have had two separate goals: a primary instrumental goal and a secondary social goal.