Fig 2 :
Fig 11 :
the food – they only touched the button , and the food came from a dispenser . Another element of natural cooperative interactions is a stream of communication between the two partners . In this study , though , the humans refrained from communicating actively with the dogs .
Another possible problem is the brevity of the dogs ’ exposure to the humans in the experiment . While Gfrerer and Taborsky ( 2017 ; mentioned earlier ) used an artificial device to enable dogs to provide each other with food , those dogs got between about 30 and 40 sessions with their partner , and the partners also exchanged roles regularly . It ’ s possible that the dogs in the McGetrick et al . study simply didn ’ t have enough repetitions to learn to discriminate between helpful and unhelpful humans — especially since the humans playing these roles were unfamiliar to the dogs being tested .
Another possibility is that no experimental design would show reciprocity . To borrow the researchers ’ words , “ it is possible that dogs do not have a predisposition to engage in reciprocal cooperation with humans naturally .” This study ’ s results are similar to those of several other studies in which dogs failed to behave prosocially towards humans , especially in food-giving tasks . On the other hand , other studies have found evidence of prosocial behavior , so the jury is still out regarding the prosociality of dogs toward humans .
Kristina Spaulding , Ph . D ., has been in the dog training and behavior profession since 1999 . She has a doctorate degree in biopsychology — the study of the biological basis of behavior — and is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist . She is particularly interested in stress , neurobiology , cognition , emotion , and wellbeing and how to apply these concepts to the prevention and early intervention of behavior problems in dogs . In addition to working with behavior clients , Dr . Spaulding teaches a variety of online courses and webinars on the science of behavior through her website , www . smartdogtrainingandbehavior . com . She also regularly presents on canine behavior science at conferences and other events . In 2019 , Dr . Spaulding received the Association of Professional Dog Trainer ’ s ( APDT ’ s ) Member of the Year Award . She currently serves on the IAABC Foundation Board and the Fear Free Advisory Group .
Irith Bloom , CPDT-KSA , CDBC , KPA CTP , VSPDT , CBATI , is a member of the faculty at Victoria Stilwell Dog Training Academy and DogBiz ' s Dog Walking Academy and speaks at conferences and seminars regularly . She has been published both online and in print . She volunteers with NESR , Annenberg PetSpace , and the LA County 2020 HPHF Coalition . Irith is the owner of The Sophisticated Dog , LLC ( https :// thesophisticateddog . com ), a pet training company based in Los Angeles .
Resources cited : McGetrick J , Poncet L , Amann M , Schullern-Schrattenhofen J , Fux L , Martínez M , et al . ( 2021 ) Dogs fail to reciprocate the receipt of food from a human in a food-giving task . PLoS ONE 16 ( 7 ): e0253277 . https :// doi . org / 10.1371 / journal . pone . 0253277
Gfrerer N , Taborsky M . ( 2018 ) Working dogs transfer different tasks in reciprocal cooperation . Biol . Lett . 14 : 20170460 . http :// dx . doi . org / 10.1098 / rsbl . 2017.0460
Clearly , we have more questions than answers right now . Hopefully , other researchers are already thinking about how to resolve any methodological issues and test this question in other ways . We eagerly await their results !
The APDT Chronicle of the Dog | Spring 2022 43