PET CARE: ASK THE EXPERTS WITH CODY
14,000 years ago—a likely estimate of when domesticated dogs began to appear—dogs have worked in close association with people. They assisted in hunting, guarding, and herding, as well as becoming close companions with humans. All of this requires some sort of interaction and communication. Dogs had a genetic leg up when it came to such behaviors because the ancestors
of dogs lived in close family groups and packs that had a system of complex social interactions. Furthermore, it seems likely that the dogs that responded most readily and accurately to human communicative signals would be appreciated more and thus better cared for, and would be more likely to be bred. Thus a sort of seat-of-the-pants applied genetics would ultimately sort out dogs so that those who had inherited good social cognitive and communication abilities would begin to dominate the species.
The domestication of cats came later, probably beginning around 7000 years ago when organized agriculture was becoming important for humans. Now the growing of grain was carried out more systematically, and granaries stored the wheat, barley, and rye following the harvest, thus providing a food supply throughout the year. Rats and mice soon discovered these food reserves. Unfortunately, these rodents do not simply eat some of the food, but they foul much of the remainder making it not fit for consumption. Because of this, cats were a godsend. Working in almost complete independence of human guidance, cats protected the granaries and fed themselves on the rats and mice.
While dogs were living socially and dependently with people, it was not so with cats. The ancestor of the cat was a strongly territorial, mostly solitary animal with minimal contact between individuals except during reproductive periods. In essence, the newly domesticated cat only had a weak social association with humans, although their territories often included human settlements. It is only in the last few hundred years that cats have become companion animals, living more socially and interactively with humans.
Testing Social Intelligence
A common test of social cognition involves pointing. By the age of two, human children recognize that pointing is a communication gesture indicating the direction of something of interest. For animals, a pointing test is quite simple: First, the animal is brought into a testing room and shown a bowl that contains a bit of a treat, which it is then allowed to eat. This is done for several trials. Next, two identical bowls are put down, one to the experimenter's right and the other to her left, and she points to one container. The experimenter always points to the container containing the treat. If the animal recognizes that this is a communication gesture they go to the container with the treat and get to consume it. A successful trial is one in which the animal goes to the container that was pointed to. An error would be going to the wrong container, or failing to make any choice at all.
For dogs, laboratory testing was a breeze. They all rapidly became comfortable in the lab, and all made a