2025/08/01 by Péter Pongrácz, Petra Dobos · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Social Sciences · Veterinary · #Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies #Geographies of human-animal interactions #Human-Animal Interaction Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/eva.70151
openalex publication_date 2025/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
ABSTRACT Behaviour has crucial importance in dogs' adaptation to the anthropogenic environment. Functional breed selection, a relatively recent evolutionary event, resulted in strong differences regarding dogs' capacity for observational learning from humans. However, genetic distance among dog breeds has thus far not been connected to their social learning performance. Here we show first evidence that ancestry‐based clustering of dog breeds can result in biologically relevant phenotypic differences in their capacity to learn from humans. We analysed a large database of spatial problem‐solving (detour) tests, where a representative sample ( N = 174) of cooperative and independent working dogs were sorted into 8 ancestry groups based on a genetic cladogram. We analysed whether ancestry would affect individual and social learning‐based spatial problem‐solving of dog breeds. Our results showed that ancestry groups with today's utility dog breeds performed this task best. Social learning was also prevalent in the ancestry group that collects English herding breeds and sight hounds as well—showing that genetically closely related cooperative and independent working dog breeds can possess similar sociocognitive traits. These results strengthen the notion that the behaviour of dog breeds can provide ecologically valid research opportunities both for proximate and ultimate evolutionary events.