I look at you to learn: Effects of the owner's sex on social learning in domestic dogs

Abstract

Dogs have been shown to be able to learn from a human demonstrator. However, to date, there have been no studies investigating the effect of the demonstrator?s sex on such learning. The aim of our study was to evaluate this effect by comparing an experimental condition in which dogs received a demonstration from their owner on how to manipulate one of two possible containers to obtain food and a control condition without any human demonstration. Each of these conditions was divided into two groups: male-owned and female-owned dogs.Overall, the dogs performed better in the experimental condition compared to the control condition. This was evidentbased ona higher frequency of correct choices and opening the correct container, as well as a higher frequency of contact and gaze towards the demonstration. The female-owned group benefited from the demonstration by choosing the correct container more frequentlyin the experimental condition compared to the control. Conversely, male-owned dogs chose the correct container more often and looked more frequently at the demonstration than female-owned dogs, without differences between conditions. This could indicate a higher capacity for problem-solvingin this group of dogs beyond the human demonstration, and therefore would not reflect a modulatory effect of the owner?s sex over social learning in particular. In conclusion, the sex of the demonstrator seems to have an effect on social learning in dogs when the demonstrator is a female owner. This might have an impact on several applied settings as well as sampling criteria in canine social cognition research.