Sneaky dogs take food quietly to avoid getting caught
Sneaky dogs take aliment quietly to avoid getting caught
25 July 2010
Magazine issue 2770. Subscribe and hinder
LIKE children with their hands in the cookie jar, dogs draw over food quietly to make sure they don't get caught. The finding adds to evidence that dogs can work out what others are cogitation.
Shannon Kundey of Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, and colleagues, gave 40 dogs, what one. had previously been trained not to eat food left on a dish, a chance to take food from inside two containers. Both containers were fitted by bells, but on one container the bells were muted.
When someone was vigilance, the dogs took food from both containers equally. But if the watcher looked not present, for instance by putting their head between their legs, the dogs went toward the silent container. This suggests they knew they could get a collation without the watcher hearing them (Applied Animal Behaviour Science, vol 126, p 45).
Kundey says her results back up other prove that dogs can represent for themselves how others perceive their actions. For copy, previous studies had found that dogs are more likely to take provender when people are not watching them.
Marc Bekoff at the University of Colorado at Boulder says the tools and materials are more proof that humans' mental abilities are not unique. "Great apes bestow amazing things, but so do other animals," he says.
Like what you've just read?
Don't miss out on the latest peace from New Scientist.
Get New Scientist magazine delivered to your home, plus unlimited access to the entire content of New Scientist online.
Subscribe since and save