Domestic dogs show many adaptations to live closely with humans, but they don't seem to respond to food giving according to a study by the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria.
The researchers trained 37 domestic dogs to operate a food vending machine by pressing a button, before separating the button and dispenser into separate housings. In the first phase, dogs were paired one by one with two unknown people. One human partner was helpful — pressing the button to distribute food in the dog house — and one was not helpful. The researchers also flipped the setup, with a button in the dog's enclosure operating a food dispenser inside the human's enclosure. They found no significant differences in the dogs' tendency to push the button for helpful or unhelpful human partners, and the human behavior in the first stage did not affect the dog's behavior toward them in free interaction sessions. after the tests.
Previous studies have shown that dogs are able to direct helpful behaviors toward other dogs that have previously helped them — a behavior known as reciprocal altruism — and research suggests that dogs are also able to differentiate between cooperative and non-cooperative. cooperative people. However, the current study found no evidence that dogs can combine these capabilities to respond to help from humans. This finding may indicate a lack of ability or tendency in dogs to reciprocate, or the experimental design may not have detected it. For example, the authors suggest that the dogs may not have understood the experiment because humans are typically the food giver in the relationship, not the recipient, or because the dogs failed to recognize the link between the human's helpful behavior and the reward.
The authors add, “In our study, dogs were fed food from humans, but they didn't return the favor.”
