Rivalry and Decision-Making in Dogs

The relationship between two household dogs affects their decisions, according to new research. By Zazie Todd, PhD If you have more than one dog , you might have noticed that if one goes over to sniff a particular spot, sometimes the other dog will also go over there. It’s called local enhancement, in which one dog (we call them the ‘demonstrator’) draws the other dog’s attention to a specific location. It’s a type of social learning that is found in many species. Dr. Christy Hoffman and Dr. Malini Suchak ( Canisius College ) investigated whether local enhancement is affected by rivalry between dogs that live in the same household. The dogs were classed as either low- or high-rivalry based on their owners responses to questions on the C-BARQ. The dog rivalry questions assessed how likely the dog is to be aggressive towards the other dog in the household, or to be aggressive when the other dog approaches when they are sleeping, eating, or playing with a toy. After conduc