Annotated Bibliography or Research Agenda

This will consist of 3 of the main studies that contribute to the idea that through dog's domestication, they pick up on social cues that make it easier to understand and communicate with humans.

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Brian Hare and Michael Tomasello: “Human-like Social Skills in Dogs?”

Hare and Tomasello use comparissions between dogs and chimpanzees to see how each of them respond to social cues given by human and how this affects their behaviors.

Hare, Brian, and Michael Tomasello. “Human-like Social Skills in Dogs?” Trends in Cognitive

Sciences, vol. 9, no. 9, 2005, pp. 439–444., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2005.07.003.

Brian Hare is a well established and respected scholar that is know for his work in dogs and cognitive studies, “Center of Cognitive Neuroscience, a Professor in Evolutionary Anthropology, and Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 2004, and in 2005, following his work at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig was awarded the Sofia Kovalevskaja Award, Germany’s most prestigious award for scientist under 40. In 2007, Smithsonian Magazine named Hare one of the top 35 scientists under 36. Hare has published over 100 scientific papers and his research has received consistent national and international attention. In 2019, Hare and his research were featured in Steven Speilberg’s documentary series Why We Hate. Hare’s first book with co-author Vanessa Woods, The Genius of Dogs is a New York Times Bestseller” (Hare, 2022). They compared how a chimpanzee would react to a human's cues versus a dogs reaction to a human’s cue. They found that the dog’s would respond to it as a result of domestication. In his publication with Michael Tomasello, “Human-like social skills in dogs?” they talk about how we have rubbed off on dogs in that we have developed better social cues to communicate with one another. Their conclusions allow them to assume “ that dogs discriminate human communicative behaviors from other behaviors, in ways similar to human infants” (Hare 2005). This is related to the other studies because through domestication, the dogs are able to pick up on social cues and behaviors in order to better communicate with humans, showing how non-related species can interact with one another.

Martina Lazzaroni and others: "The Effect of Domestication and Experience on the Social Interaction of Dogs and Wolves with a Human Companion"

Lazzaroni and the others describe how domestication shapes the way in which the species interacts with humans, and how the domestication has evolved.

Lazzaroni, Martina, et al. “The Effect of Domestication and Experience on the Social

Interaction of Dogs and Wolves with a Human Companion.” Frontiers in Psychology,

vol. 11, 2020, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00785.

In the peer reviewed journal “The Effect of Domestication and Experience on the Social Interaction of Dogs and Wolves With a Human Companion,” Lazzaroni and others look into the interactions between dogs and humans while taking specific interest in non-related species being able to communicate with one another. The authors specialize differences in reconciliation patterns between wolves and dogs by studying the development of wolves, and how they have evolved in their cognitive abilities and social interactions. They use a pre-test and test involving social interactions with humans and food. They are looking to see how dogs' behavior has changed when exposed to human communication. The results of current wolf-dog studies on human-directed behaviors seem to suggest that domestication has acted on dogs’ general attitudes and not on specific socio-cognitive skills. This leads to explain why there are 19 main referential signs that are referred to in the National Geographic article referenced because they describe “sequential behaviors” in the study mentioned about how dogs being domesticated has affected parts of their social behaviors. They describe the social interactions that occur among dogs and humans that has made it easier for us to communicate with one another across species.

Elaina Zachos: "Dogs Use 19 Referential Signals to Communicate with Humans"

Zachos explains how dogs typically stick to a set of 19 gestures that they can use to communicate better with humans and this has continued to evolve with domestication.

Zachos, Elaina. “Dogs Use 19 Referential Signals to Communicate with Humans.” Animals,

National Geographic, 3 May 2021,

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/dog-referential-signaling-gestures.

Elaina Zachos is the author of tons of publications, specifically some ones on animal behavior, that are on National Geographic UK who is a background researcher that writes many journals and articles on animal behavior. In one of her publications, “Dogs Use 19 Referential Signals to Communicate with Humans,” it references a study done on dog behavior from Worsely that attempts to find some connection to domestication of dogs and how it affects their social abilities with others, Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) meanwhile provide an ideal non-primate candidate for investigating referential signalling due to their unique relationship with humans that centres on non-verbal communication with frequent interaction” (Worsley and O'Hara, 2018). This has been cited many times and has led to the idea that there are 19 gestures that dogs use with us to communicate. This is related to the other references because they both discuss ways in which the domestication of dogs has affected their social behavior and communicative capabilities.