Is dogs' heritable performance in socio-cognitive tasks truly social?

Learn Behav. 2022 Mar;50(1):6-7. doi: 10.3758/s13420-021-00498-x. Epub 2022 Jan 14.

Abstract

Recently, Bray et al. (2021) showed that behavioural performance in cognitive tasks involving humans is highly heritable in dog puppies. Although the paper shows substantial heritability of specific behavioural traits, the absence of control conditions does not allow for strong support of the authors' claim that the cognitive performance they measured represents a special sensitivity to human cooperative-communicative acts.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cognition*
  • Communication*
  • Dogs
  • Phenotype