Dogs Dumbed Down by Domestication

It is commonly accepted that dogs, in general, are just not as smart as some other house pets like cats for example. Is this because dogs are just naturally not as smart as other domestic animals or have humans “dumbed down” dogs through domestication? According to a DiscoveryNews article by Jennifer Viegas, “the blank stare in your dog’s eyes could be the result of thousands of years of human intervention.”

Jennifer Viegas argues that dogs have lost their problem solving skills because they rely so heavily on humans to solve problems for them. Viegas points to an experiment conducted at the Dingo Discovery Center in Victoria, Australia to draw her conclusion. The study put dingoes, native dogs to the Australian Outback, and domesticated dogs through a problem solving test researchers called, “the detour task”. The task is a test of spatial problem solving skills because it requires the dogs to go around a transparent V-shaped fence with detour doors which swing both inward and outward to find a bowl of food at the end. The dingoes aced the test by reaching the food in about 20 seconds and using the detour doors at the correct times. However, the domesticated dogs were perplexed and bewildered. The domestic dogs pawed at the fence, dug at it, and even barked out of frustration calling for help.

The study was accepted for publication in the journal Animal Behaviour, because it provides solid evidence that humans have “dumbed down” dogs through domestication, leaving them without some problem solving skills wolves and wild dogs have. This experiment and its findings help explain why homeless dogs often struggle to survive. Overall, this study helps explain that there may be cognitive differences between wild and domestic dogs in terms of how they approach problem solving. Rob Appleby, a researcher in the Wildlife-Human Ecology and Behavior Research Lab at Griffin University said that the difference in how wild and domestic dogs approach problem solving potentially relates, “to their differing evolutionary histories.”

I thought this article was very interesting and tied in really well with the course’s first week of material. I think this article provides a great example of how species adapt based on their environment and in this case adaption is not necessarily a positive thing. After reading this article and the results of “the detour task” experiment I completely agree with Appleby. The difference in problem solving between wild and domestic dogs originates from their different evolutionary histories, in which, one of the driving variables is human intervention or domestication.

Loba Alam