Credit: Rebecca Fränzle
Domestic dogs show many adaptations to living closely with humans, but they do not seem to reciprocate food-giving according to a study, publishing July 14 in the open-access journal
PLOS ONE, led by Jim McGetrick and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria.
The researchers trained 37 domestic dogs to operate a food dispenser by pressing a button, before separating the button and dispenser in separate enclosures. In the first stage, dogs were paired with two unfamiliar humans one at a time. One human partner was helpful - pressing their button to dispense food in the dog s enclosure - and one was unhelpful. The researchers also reversed the set-up, with a button in the dog s enclosure that operated a food dispenser in the human s enclosure. They found no significant differences in the dogs tendency to press the button for helpful or unhelpful human partners, and the human s behavior in the first stage did not affect the dog
Dogs are happy to accept food from humans - but are unlikely to return the favour, study finds
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