Genetics of Domesticated Behavior in Dogs and Foxes - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 360

( Cesarino, 1975; Clutton-Brock, 1981, 1995; Harcourt, 1974; Pionnier-
Capitan et al., 2011; Zeda et al., 2006 ). Significantly, many of these ancient
paintings and other works of art portray dogs and humans in contexts of
social interaction between the two species, and evidence exists from prehis-
toric times for task-related interactions between humans and dogs. Dogs
have been and remain present in almost every human culture and population
as our close companions, assisting us in many tasks. This has led to the con-
cept that dogs and humans are co-evolved species, each influencing the
development of the other ( Hare et al., 2012; Shipman, 2010 ).

DOGS ARE MORE COMPETENT THAN WOLVES IN
SOCIAL INTERACTION WITH HUMANS
When we talk about dogs we often describe their behavior in anthropomor-
phic terms. Dogs actively participate in our lives using their unique abilities
to understand words from our language, the tone of our voice, and our body
language ( Grassmann et al., 2012; Kaminski et al., 2004, 2009; Pilley and
Reid, 2011; Pongr ´ cz et al., 2001a, 2004, 2005a ). Humans and dogs have
developed mutual skills for cross-species communication ( Ellingsen et al.,
2010; Pongr ´ cz et al., 2001a, 2001b, 2005b ) that have led to development of
the unique social interaction between the dog and its master. No other spe-
cies is so routinely used as guides for blind people ( Naderi et al., 2001;
Serpell and Hsu, 2001 ) and as assistants for people with other disabilities
( Eddy et al., 1988; Guest et al., 2006; Lanea et al., 1998; Rintala et al.,
2008 ).
Dogs develop attachment to their owners after a short period of interac-
tion (Gacsi et al., 2001, 2004; Top´l et al., 2005 ), in contrast to home-raised
wolves who do not show patterns of attachment to humans similar to those
observed in dogs, even after extensive socialization from an early age ( Gacsi
et al., 2004; Topal et al., 2005 ). Attachment is one of the basic phenomena
of human social relationships ( Bowlby, 1958 ) and one of the obvious fea-
tures of the human dog attachment is its resemblance to the human

parent child relationship ( Hare and Tomasello, 2005; Scott and Fuller,

1965; Top ´ l et al., 1998, 2005 ).
In the laboratory, the social skills of dogs and wolves and their ability to
communicate with humans are commonly tested using the object-choice par-
adigm. In this test the canid should choose between two containers using the
experimenter's tap, point, or gaze cues. The correct choice is rewarded. The
work of Brian Hare and colleagues (2002) has shown that dogs are more
skillful than hand-reared wolves at using human social cues. Dogs presented
with the object-choice task showed competence in reading proximal point,
proximal point and gaze, and all three types of cues (tap, point, and gaze)
combined. The wolves in the same test demonstrated abilities to identify a
correct container above the random chance level only when provided with