Abstract
As a companion to humans, the domestic dog is naturally interpreted from a human-centered (anthropocentric) perspective. Indeed, dog behavior and actions are often explained by using anthropomorphisms: attributions to the dog that would hold if the actor were human. While sometimes useful, anthropomorphisms also have the potential to be misleading or incorrect. In this chapter we describe work to replace an anthropocentric perspective with a more dog-centered research program. First we detail research systematically testing anthropomorphisms of emotional complexity—the appearance of guilt and jealousy—that are made of dogs, by testing the context of appearance of the “guilty look” and by testing advantageous and disadvantageous inequity aversion. Relatedly, we describe research looking at the contribution of specific dog physical attributes to human preference and anthropomorphizing. Finally, we identify anthropocentric and canid-centric elements of our own and others’ research, and suggest ways that research can be more sensitive to the dog’s umwelt.
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- 1.
Disobedience was assured by the treat being offered to the dog by the experimenter after the owner left the room, and obedience, by the treat's immediate removal. In pilot trials, no difference was seen in the dogs' behavior whether they ate the treat because it was provided by the experimenter or of their own accord.
- 2.
Putting aside, of course, the many studies of dogs as tracking dogs or explosives-, drug-, or disease-detection dogs. These research programs are highly relevant for an understanding not just of these working dogs, but also of the entire species. However, these programs do not arise from the cognitive and behavioral fields with which this chapter is concerned.
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Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the members of the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab who helped to run the experiments mentioned herein, and to Animal Haven, a non-profit shelter in New York City that generously donated use of their facility for running trials. We are indebted to the dog owners who participate in our experiments, and doubly so to their dogs.
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Horowitz, A., Hecht, J. (2014). Looking at Dogs: Moving from Anthropocentrism to Canid Umwelt . In: Horowitz, A. (eds) Domestic Dog Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-53994-7_9
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