Dogs do not like people who are mean to their owners, according to Japanese researchers, and will refuse food offered by people who have snubbed their master.
The findings reveal that canines have the capacity to co-operate socially – a characteristic found in a relatively small number of species, including humans and some other primates.
Researchers led by Kazuo Fujita, a professor of comparative cognition at Kyoto University, tested three groups of 18 dogs using role plays in which their owners needed to open a box.
In all three groups, the owner was accompanied by two people whom the dog did not know.
In the first group, the owner sought assistance from one of the other people, who actively refused to help.
In the second group, the owner asked for, and received, help from one person. In both groups, the third person was neutral and not involved in either helping or refusing to help.
Neither person interacted with the dog’s owner in the control – third group.
After watching the box-opening scene, the dog was offered food by the two unfamiliar people in the room.
Dogs that saw their owner being rebuffed were far more likely to choose food from the neutral observer, and to ignore the offer from the person who had refused to help.
– Kazuo Fujita
Dogs whose owners were helped and dogs whose owners did not interact with either person showed no marked preference for accepting snacks from the strangers.
We discovered for the first time that dogs make social and emotional evaluations of people regardless of their direct interest.
– Kazuo Fujita
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