Puppies are born with the genetic ability to understand people

A study has shown that puppies are born with the genetic ability to understand people. Although individual relationships with people can influence behavior, at least 40 percent of this ability is due to genetics alone.

Domestic dogs are born to communicate with people because we bred them that way. Two-month-old puppies can already recognize when people are pointing at objects and look at our faces when we talk to them, both signs that dogs have an innate ability to interact with us through body language.

Although individual relationships with humans may influence this behavior, at least 40 percent of this ability is due to genetics alone, says Emily Bray of the University of Arizona.

“Throughout domestication, from the wolf to the dog, there has been a clear selection for these social skills,” she says. “It’s something that’s ingrained in them and shows up at a very early age, even before they’ve had much experience with humans.”

Bray and her colleagues tested these skills on 375 8-week-old golden retriever and Labrador pups who were to become service dogs. According to Bray, this was the earliest age at which they could conduct such experiments because the pups were still young enough to be motivated by food incentives.

The researchers found that pointing to food hidden under a cup helped the pups find it almost 70 percent of the time. The success rate was so high from the start, which means the pups weren’t learning to follow directions but already knew how to do it, Bray says.

Much of the variation in the ability of different pups to follow the finger pointing is due to genetics, Bray says. Using a statistical analysis based on the pups’ parents and other relatives, the researchers found that genetic factors were responsible for 43 percent of these variations.

The team also conducted another experiment in which researchers talked to puppies and found that the dogs fixed their gaze on the person for more than 6 seconds on average, which meant they understood that they were being communicated with. Again, genetic factors here, too, explained about 40 percent of the difference between the pups, Bray says.

However, when the pups failed to open the box of food in the third experiment, they only looked at the researcher’s face for about a second, which means they were not seeking help from the human. The results suggest that, like young children, most pet puppies are naturally good at understanding and responding to people who talk to them. But at 8 weeks of age, they have not yet developed the social skills necessary to ask people for help.

The findings also have important implications for breeders and buyers, Bray adds. People can choose to breed dogs with good social skills, knowing it’s a hereditary trait. And they can also choose puppies that look at people’s faces when they talk to them as the beginning of a good interspecies bond. “If your dog can read your communication, the relationship is likely to be more harmonious,” she says.

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