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Creative Canine: Original Intentional Canine-to-Human Communication doorbell to come inside. Another enterprising puppy soiled inside, then covered the mess with newspapers, a definite avoidance message. Dogs learned to juggle objects such as collars, keys, or other tools to obtain needed potty breaks. A Cocker Spaniel retrieves seasonally appropriate socks or mittens to request walks. A lab mix clangs the trash can lid repeatedly until someone refills her empty water bowl. A more independent Newfie turns door knobs to be near her humans and turns on the outside hose for a drink. One Belgian uses objects to bully her humans, “When my dog wants me to give her a treat, she ’threatens’ to do something I don’t like [such as] paw next to a full ashtray and act as if she’ll knock it over.” 22 Vocalizations also illicit original messages. Several respondents report their dogs employ specific utterances exclusively for favorite people. A Border Collie always greets one spouse with a “woo-woo” and a lab has a special “Marilyn” bark. One dog gives a distinctive bark for each different critter who invades the yard and another predictably alerts its 9 p.m. bedtime. Two respondents, both trainers, insist their dogs speak actual English words. One husky says “outside,” “I’m hungry,” and “I love you” albeit with a canine accent. A senior mix began greeting with a “harrow” sound, but never on cue. Several humans reported that their dogs’ alerts “tattle” on other misbehaving pets: “She only vocalizes this tone/manner when my other dog or cat are doing something wrong. She is telling on them ... if I’m upstairs in the office and the other dog gets into the garbage ... she will come upstairs, get between me and the keyboard and vocalize that there is something wrong … She doesn’t vocalize in this same way if she just wants me to pay her attention ... just when the dog or cat is doing something that they would get a correction for if I were in the room.” 23 Dogs also gesture with inspired intent. Witnesses attest that a sleep-deprived Terv nudges his humans until they roll over, thus stopping their snores. In the morning an enterprising mix becomes a snooze alarm clock by thumping her tail progressively louder on the floor until her owner wakes up. Another action-oriented and empathetic lab brings her tired master slippers and a pillow after work. Conclusion - Implications for Trainers I sought with this survey to discover whether dogs utilize original and creative behaviors to communicate specific messages to their human companions and how their humans interpreted these messages. The results suggest that not only can dogs intentionally devise unique non-trained signals to communicate with their humans, but that these behaviors vary based on the dog’s breed, demographics, origin, activities as well as other pets in the homes where they live. The study results also suggest that the humans’ level of experience and training with dogs influenced their success at identifying these varied messages. Although basic and nonscientific, these intriguing results support the need for future formal , and appropriately sampled, research in creative canine-to-human communications and the impacts of variables, particularly those based on breed, training, place of acquisition, other pets in the home, as well as the humans’ experience as professionals or owners. Controlled studies must utilize impartial observers to limit anthropomorphism, to standardize behavior identifications, and to negate the owners’ tendencies to interpret their dogs’ actions to fulfill their own emotional agendas. However, such formalized research criteria present other difficulties. For example, the behaviors reported are non-cued and often occur only in relation to a specific place or person. Thanks to domestication and close bonds, dogs developed complex communication systems with humans. In fact, dogs seem to learn “how to speak human” better than we learn their language. As family members, these four-legged sponges absorb both our verbal and nonverbal signals, then flexibly use human signals including novel ones, to talk to us. 24 Therefore, dogs use observational and social learning, usually when we are unaware of it. 25 Interspecies social learning rarely happens in nature and never encompasses the animals instinctive behavior. The unparalleled human-canine bond nurtures such learning and dogs learn by observation without any food or other reinforcers found in operant conditioning. 26 Despite this, social learning seldom finds its rightful place in the dog training curriculum. Many trainers currently advocate operant methods, deem all learning as conditioned, and thus discount social learning as a legitimate training alternative. 27 This study, as well as the work of noted canine researchers such as Vilmos Csányi and Ádám Miklósi, suggest that dogs are much more aware of our intentions and language as well as uniquely adept at inventing creative ways to communicate with us which, as trainers, we can no longer ignore. Acknowledgment My thanks to Mychelle Blake for her outstanding patience and support of this project. Audrey Schwartz Rivers, MS, directs the nonprofit PetShare which provides animal-assisted programs for at-risk youth. A featured speaker on human-animal interactions at national conferences, Audrey’s writings have been published in the New York Times, Seventeen, Change, Chronicle of the Dog and in the book Dog Trainer’s Resource. Audrey holds a master’s degree in human sciences and bachelor’s in journalism. Prior to founding PetShare, Audrey handled strategic planning and public affairs for the NASA Johnson Space Center. This summer, Audrey served as a research apprentice at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute, home of the chimpanzees who communicate to humans and each other via American Sign Language. She also studied primate communication and behavior with National Geographic researcher Jill Pruetz. For more information about this study, please contact Audrey at asrivers@petshare.org. > 30 w The APDT Chronicle of the Dog w November/December 2008 www.APDT.com
Endotes 1. Miklósi, Á., Topál, J., Virányi, Z., “Comparative social cognition: what can dogs teach us?,” Animal Behavior 67 (2004): 995-1004. 2. Hare, Brian and Tomasello, Michael, “Human-like social skills in dogs?,” Trends Cognitive Science 9.9 (September 2005): 439-444. 3. Miklósi, Á., Topál, J., Virányi, Z., op, cit. 4. Csányi, Vilmos, If Dogs Could Talk (New York: North Point Press, 2000) 5. Woodard, Colin, “Clever Canines: Did Domestication Make Dogs Smarter?” The Chronicle of Higher Education Research, (April 15, 2005): A12. 6. Miklósi, Á, The Chronicle of Higher Education, on-line chat, April 14, 2005, 2 p.m. EDT, Rich Monastersky, moderator. (http://chronicle.com/colloquy/2005/04/dogs/); and Soproni, K. and Miklósi, Á,, “Comprehension of Human Communicative Signs in Pet Dogs (Canis familiaris), Journal of Comparative Psychology 115:2 (2001) 122-126. 7. Soproni, K. and Miklósi, Á, ibid. 8. Pongrácz, Péter, Molnár, Csaba, Miklósi, Ádám, “Acoustic parameters of dog barks carry emotional information for humans,” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 100.3-4 (2006): 228-240; and Miklósi, Á, Polgárdi, R., Topál, J., Csányi, V, “Intentional behaviour in dog-human communication: an experimental analysis of “showing” behaviour in the dog,” Animal Cognition 3 (2000): 159-166. 9. Survey Monkey http://www.surveymonkey.com/ ( http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=HkCWgzYo_2bN5P 4n_2blq1SlMQ_3d_3d). 10. The essay question on behavior read, “Please describe in detail the intentional original behavior your dog created to communicate a specific message to you. This should NOT be a behavior that you or someone else taught your dog to do.” 11. The essay question about messages read, ““What message do you think your dog wants to communicate to you by this special behavior? Does your dog display this behavior at any other time?” 12. Equation for baseline calculations: (#individual response/ total responses x 100 = mean % baseline). 13. Variables: AKC group, age, gender, other pets, how acquired, owner and trainer, class attendance, activities. 14. Bekoff, Marc, Animal Passions and Beastly Virtues: Reflections on Redecorating Nature (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006) 24-27. 15. Pongrácz, Péter, Miklósi Ádám, Csányi, Vilmos, “Owner’s beliefs on the ability of their pet dogs to understand human verbal communication: A case of social www.APDT.com understanding.” Current Psychology of Cognition (2001) 20 (1-2) 87-107. 16. Pongrácz, ibid. 17. Miklósi, Ádám, Kubinyi, Enikö, Topál, József,Gácsi, Márta , Virányi, Zsófia & Csányi, Vilmos, “A Simple Reason for a Big Difference: Wolves Do Not Look Back at Humans, but Dogs do,” Current Biology 13 (April 29, 2003): 763-766. 18. Multiple choice options were used for acquisition responses. However, respondents may not have accurately cited from where they acquired their dogs. For example, some may have considered a “professional breeder” to be one who sells pets in a parking lot. 19. Baseline: avoidance (5%), permission (3%), play (6%). Dogs with non-candid pets: avoidance, permission, play 13% each. 20. Soproni, op. cit. 21. Bekoff, op. cit. 22. Survey Respondent 1-56. 23. Survey respondent #1-17. 24. Virányi, Zsófia, Topál, József, Gácsi, Márta, Miklósi, Ádám, Csányi, Vilmos, “Dogs respond appropriately to cues of humans’ attentional focus,” Behavioral Processes 66 (2004): 161-172. and Miklósi, Á., Topál, J., Virányi, Z., “Comparative social cognition: what can dogs teach us?,” Animal Behavior 67 (2004): 995-1004. 25. Pongrácz, Péter, Miklósi Ádám, Kubinyi, Enikö,Topál, József, Csányi, Vilmos, “Interaction between individual experience and social learning in dogs,” Animal Behaviour 65 (2003): 595-603; and Pongrácz, Péter, Miklósi, Ádám, Timár-Geng and Csányi, Vilmos, “Vocal Attention Getting as a Key Factor in Social Learning Between Dog (Canis familiaris) and Human”, Journal of Comparative Psychology 118:4 (2004): 375-383; and Kubinyi, Enikö, Miklósi Ádám, Topál, József, Csányi, Vilmos “Dogs (Canis familiaris) Learn From Their Owners via Observation in a Manipulation Task”, Journal of Comparative Psychology 117:2 (2003): 156- 165. 26. Pongrácz, Ibid; and Kubinyi , Ibid; and Range, Friederike, Viranyi, Zsófia, Huber, Ludwig, “Selective Imitation in Domestic Dogs”, Current Biology 17 (May 15, 2007). 27. Miklósi, on-line chat, op.cit. November/December 2008 w The APDT Chronicle of the Dog w 31 Creative Canine: Original Intentional Canine-to-Human Communication
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