When dogs seem to lose their nose: an investigation on the use of visual and olfactory cues in communicative context between dog and owner

Canine Olfaction

V Szetei, Á Miklósi, J Topál, V Csányi

When dogs seem to lose their nose: an investigation on the use of visual and olfactory cues in communicative context between dog and owner

Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Volume 83, Issue 2, 5 September 2003, Pages 141–152

Abstract

In two experimental studies, we observed whether dogs rely on olfactory and/or visual information about the hiding place for food in a two-choice test. However, for some dogs direct olfactory (smelling the food) or visual (observing of the food being hidden) experience has been contradicted by human pointing (a well-known communicative gesture for the dog) to the ‘incorrect’ hiding place. We have found that dogs were able to use both olfactory and visual cues efficiently to choose above chance in a choice situation when there was no human cueing. However, in other experimental groups the dogs tended to choose the bowl pointed at by the human. This change in their behavior was more pronounced if they had only olfactory information about the location of the food. In contrast, if they had seen where the food was placed, dogs were more reluctant to follow the pointing gesture, but even so their performance worsened compared to the case in which they saw only the bowl baited.

These results give further support for the hypothesis that dogs regard the pointing gesture as being a communicative act about the placing of the food, but they do not rely on this gesture blindly and they can modify their behavior based on visual experience related directly to the hiding of the food. Further, contrary to general expectations dogs rely in this situation, only to some degree on olfactory cues.

Observations of scent-marking and discriminating self from others by a domestic dog (Canis familiaris): tales of displaced yellow snow

Marc Bekoff

Observations of scent-marking and discriminating self from others by a domestic dog (Canis familiaris): tales of displaced yellow snow

Behavioural Processes, Volume 55, Issue 2, 15 August 2001, Pages 75–79

Abstract

Little is known about what stimuli trigger urinating or scent-marking in domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, or their wild relatives. While it is often suggested that the urine of other animals influences urinating and scent-marking patterns in canids, this has not been verified experimentally. To investigate the role of urine in eliciting urinating and marking, in this pilot study I moved urine-saturated snow (‘yellow snow’) from place-to-place during five winters to compare the responses of an adult male domestic dog, Jethro, to his own and others' urine. Jethro spent less time sniffing his own urine than that of other males or females, and that while his interest in his own urine waned with time it remained relatively constant for other individuals' urine. Jethro infrequently urinated over or sniffed and then immediately urinated over (scent-marked) his own urine. He marked over the urine of other males more frequently than he marked over females' urine. The method used here can be extended to other species for which experimental data are lacking. Though based on one dog, these novel data may further our knowledge of the role of scent-marking in territorial behavior and of sex differences in territory acquisition and maintenance.