Science continues to provide evidence of how smart dogs are. We are not going to say that they only need to talk, but it has been shown that they understand some of the things we say to them, that they interpret our moods, that they exhibit a certain empathy … and that they know how to deceive us, at least when there is a good bite in play.
Indeed, an experiment led by Marianne T. E. Heberlein, from the Department of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Zurich, shows that Canis familiaris (the longtime domestic dog) knows how to use the so-called ” tactical deception” to get food.
Canine strategists
The scientists reached this conclusion after subjecting a group of dogs of different sexes, races and ages to tests in which they interacted with three humans: their owner, who always showed a cooperative attitude with the animal; and two strangers whom they knew shortly before the tests: one (we will call him “the cooperator”) who always gave the dog the food hidden in a container; and another who always kept food for himself and became a “competitor” in the eyes of the canid.
Heberlein and his colleagues explain the experiment as follows: “The dogs had the option of taking one of the two strangers to three potential food sources: a box containing a food to the liking of the animal; another with one that left him indifferent; and a third always empty. Afterwards, the dog always had the possibility to lead its owner to one of the places with food. In this way, the animal would benefit from deceiving its competitor, because it learned that later there was another opportunity to receive its favorite snack of his master. “
What did the biologists observe? When it was the cooperator who accompanied them, the dogs almost always led him to the box where their favorite food was hidden. When it was the competitor, the animals used to take it to the empty container, because they knew that, later, its owner would arrive and give them food.
The results show that these clever dogs distinguished cooperative humans from competitors, and that they adjusted their behavior based on this difference. They were able to take advantage of “tactical deception” and use concealment in a premeditated and learned way to achieve their goals.
