Cooperative Communication with Humans Evolved to Emerge Early in Domestic Dogs

Although we know that dogs evolved from wolves, it remains unclear how domestication affected dog cognition. One hypothesis suggests dog domestication altered social maturation by a process of selecting for an attraction to humans.1–3 Under this account, dogs became more flexible in using inherited skills to cooperatively communicate with a new social partner that was previously feared and expressed these unusual social skills early in development.4–6 Here, we comparedog (n = 44) and wolf (n = 37) puppies, 5–18 weeks old, on a battery of temperament and cognition tasks. We find that dog puppies are more attracted to humans, read human gestures more skillfully, and make more eye contact with humans than wolf puppies. The two species are similarly attracted to familiar objects and perform similarly on non-social measures of memory and inhibitory control. These results are consistent with the idea that domestication enhanced the cooperative-communicative abilities of dogs as selection for attraction to humans altered social maturation. •Dog puppies are more attracted to humans than wolf puppies raised by humans•Dog puppies use human gestures and make eye contact more than wolf puppies•Both species perform similarly on memory and inhibitory control tasks•Dogs’ early emerging social skills demonstrate domestication’s effect on cognition As a result of domestication, dogs develop early emerging social skills that allow for cooperative communication. Salomons et al. compare typically reared dog puppies to wolf puppies with extensive human exposure. The dog puppies outperform the wolf puppies in cooperative-communicative tasks with humans, but not in non-social tasks.