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Is cognition the secret to working dog success?

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Abstract

Dogs’ special relationship with humans not only makes them ubiquitous in our lives, but working dogs specifically perform essential functions for us such as sniffing out bombs and pulling wheelchairs for the disabled. To enhance the performance of working dogs, it is essential to understand the cognitive skills that underlie and lead to their success. This review details recent work in the field of canine cognition, including how dogs have evolved socio-cognitive skills that mimic or, in some cases, rival even our closest primate relatives. We review how these findings have laid the foundation for new studies that hope to help enhance working dog programs. This includes work that has begun to reveal the development and stability of the most important traits for service work. Discoveries like these suggest the possibility of translating what we have learned to improve breeding, selection, and training for these jobs. The latest research we review here shows promise in contributing to the production of better dogs and, consequently, more help for people.

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Acknowledgements

Thank you to Jeff Katz and Debbie Kelly for inviting our submission. This work was funded in part by grants from the Office of Naval Research (N00014-16-12682) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH-1Ro1HD097732).

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  1. Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, USA

    Brian Hare & Morgan Ferrans

  2. Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, USA

    Brian Hare & Morgan Ferrans

  3. Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, USA

    Brian Hare

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Correspondence to Morgan Ferrans.

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Hare, B., Ferrans, M. Is cognition the secret to working dog success?. Anim Cogn 24, 231–237 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-021-01491-7

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