Dogs Social Intelligence

In this post, I will be discussing the interpersonal or social intelligence of the dog. Interpersonal intelligence refers to a dog’s ability to communicate with humans and with other dogs, their social competence and social learning (Coren, 2006). I associate interpersonal intelligence with dogs as they are such a social species, who form bonds with humans with ease. I find it fascinating to watch dogs greet their humans as well as other dogs. There is so much communication happening between dogs that we can observe in their, often subtle, body language. Much research has been done to investigate how this form of intelligence has evolved in dogs, the extent of dogs social intelligence and how their social abilities have helped them become ‘man’s best friend’. 

Dogs Theory of Mind

One way to understand dogs social intelligence is to explore whether they have ‘theory of mind’. This refers to an individual’s ability to understand the mental state of others from their outward behaviour and for this to influence their own behaviour (Maginnity, 2007). A recent review of research conducted on dogs theory of mind concluded that the domestic dog may be perceptive to what others see, know and intend to do (Huber & Lonardo, 2023). These included experiments on dogs ability to follow the gaze and attention of humans.

However, there are some arguments against this. Roberts & Macpherson (2011) have questioned whether perspective taking tasks are actually more of a reflection of the dogs pre-experimental learning. Others have argued that studying an animal’s theory of mind is vague and open to interpretation and as such is difficult to study in an empirical manner (Penn & Povinelli, 2007). 

Dogs Social Intelligence- Cooperation

Another theory that can help us understand the interpersonal intelligence of dogs is the Canine Cooperation Hypothesis (Range & Virányi, 2015). This puts forward that a dog’s ability to cooperate with humans evolved on the basis of its ancestor, the wolf’s, ability to cooperate with one another. The authors set up the Wolf Science Center to test and compare wolves and dogs raised in identical conditions. Thereby, excluding the possibility that pre-experimental learning or individual differences may influence the results. In one experiment, they tested each animal with another group member in food competition tests. They found that in dogs, the high ranking dog in the pair showed more aggression and fed alone most of the time.

Interestingly, wolves did not show the same effect of rank on behaviour. Range & Marshall-Pescini (2022) have commented that humans may have selected for these more easily controlled dogs for their own benefit ie. cooperative living. Supporting this, A 2019 study by Range, Marshall-Pescini, Kratz & Virányi, found that in a string pulling task, both dogs and wolves were very cooperative with a human helper. However, dogs were likely to wait for the human to initiate action for them to then follow, whereas the wolves were more likely to initiate action. 

So, Dogs Social Intelligence has enabled them to live cooperatively with humans and other animals for thousands of years. These social skills have led them to become one of the most successful species on the planet. In my opinion, further research into individual and breed differences in interpersonal intelligence would be beneficial to dog ownership and training. 

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References

The Intelligence of Dogs: A Guide to the Thoughts, Emotions, and Inner Lives of Our Canine Companions, 2006. Stanley Coren. 

Maginnity, M. (2007). Perspective Taking and Knowledge Attribution in the Domestic Dog (Canis familiaris): A Canine Theory of Mind?.

Huber, L., Lonardo, L., 2023. Canine perspective-taking. Animal Cognition 26, 275–298. 

Roberts, W.A., Macpherson, K., 2011. Theory of mind in dogs: is the perspective-taking task a good test?. Learning & Behaviour, 39, 303–305.

Penn DC,. & Povinelli DJ., 2007. On the lack of evidence that non-human animals possess anything remotely resembling a ‘theory of mind’. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 362(1480):731-44.

F. Range & Z. Virányi. 2015. Tracking the evolutionary origins of dog-human cooperation: the “Canine Cooperation Hypothesis”. Front. Psychol., 5. 

Range, F., Marshall-Pescini, S. (2022). Domestication Hypotheses Relating to Behaviour and Cognition: Which Are Supported by the Current Data?. In: Wolves and Dogs. Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer, Cham. 

Range, F., Marshall-Pescini, S., Kratz, C., & Virányi, Z. (2019). Wolves lead and dogs follow, but they both cooperate with humans. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-10.