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Dogs steal in the dark.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Kaminski, J; Pitsch, A; Tomasello, M
Published in: Animal cognition
May 2013

All current evidence of visual perspective taking in dogs can possibly be explained by dogs reacting to certain stimuli rather than understanding what others see. In the current study, we set up a situation in which contextual information and social cues are in conflict. A human always forbade the dog from taking a piece of food. The part of the room being illuminated was then varied, for example, either the area where the human was seated or the area where the food was located was lit. Results show that dogs steal significantly more food when it is dark compared to when it is light. While stealing forbidden food the dog's behaviour also depends on the type of illumination in the room. Illumination around the food, but not the human, affected the dogs' behaviour. This indicates that dogs do not take the sight of the human as a signal to avoid the food. It also cannot be explained by a low-level associative rule of avoiding illuminated food which dogs actually approach faster when they are in private. The current finding therefore raises the possibility that dogs take into account the human's visual access to the food while making their decision to steal it.

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Published In

Animal cognition

DOI

EISSN

1435-9456

ISSN

1435-9448

Publication Date

May 2013

Volume

16

Issue

3

Start / End Page

385 / 394

Related Subject Headings

  • Male
  • Learning
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Feeding Behavior
  • Dogs
  • Darkness
  • Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Animals
 

Citation

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Kaminski, J., Pitsch, A., & Tomasello, M. (2013). Dogs steal in the dark. Animal Cognition, 16(3), 385–394. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-012-0579-6
Kaminski, Juliane, Andrea Pitsch, and Michael Tomasello. “Dogs steal in the dark.Animal Cognition 16, no. 3 (May 2013): 385–94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-012-0579-6.
Kaminski J, Pitsch A, Tomasello M. Dogs steal in the dark. Animal cognition. 2013 May;16(3):385–94.
Kaminski, Juliane, et al. “Dogs steal in the dark.Animal Cognition, vol. 16, no. 3, May 2013, pp. 385–94. Epmc, doi:10.1007/s10071-012-0579-6.
Kaminski J, Pitsch A, Tomasello M. Dogs steal in the dark. Animal cognition. 2013 May;16(3):385–394.
Journal cover image

Published In

Animal cognition

DOI

EISSN

1435-9456

ISSN

1435-9448

Publication Date

May 2013

Volume

16

Issue

3

Start / End Page

385 / 394

Related Subject Headings

  • Male
  • Learning
  • Humans
  • Female
  • Feeding Behavior
  • Dogs
  • Darkness
  • Behavioral Science & Comparative Psychology
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Animals