Yawn Game

In this game, you yawned and recorded whether Louie yawned in response. Yawning in dogs can be an indicator of stress, but we were measuring something different - social yawning. The rationale behind this game is that even as young children, we laugh when we see someone laughing, and we cry when we see someone in distress. Our ability to "catch" the emotions of others is called emotional contagion. A common form of emotional contagion is yawning. If you see, hear or even think about someone yawning, you will probably feel an irresistible urge to yawn.

Louie did not yawn in response to your yawn, but this is not surprising. Although dogs are one of the few species besides humans that contagiously yawn, there is variation among dogs. Data from several research groups shows differing results, but our preliminary data shows that only 20% of dogs yawn contagiously.

Eye Contact Game

In this game, you timed how long Louie held your eye contact. Before babies can hug or speak, they use eye gaze to bond with their mothers. Research with dogs has shown that a similar phenomenon may happen with owners and dogs. Owners whose dogs stared at them for longer had significant increases in the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin, also known as the "hug hormone," is related to feelings of bonding, pleasure and affection.

Judging by the extraordinary length of time Louie spent gazing soulfully into your eyes, you probably often find her staring at you for no reason. You might wonder if Louie is trying to tell you something, like she is hungry, needs to go to the bathroom or has an opinion on what to do over the weekend. But Louie may not want or need anything - she may be just hugging you with her eyes.

Arm Pointing

Although the pointing game may have seemed simple, the skills it requires are quite specialized. Dogs are one of the only animals that rely on human gestures - but even among dogs there is variation. Some dogs are more like infants and rely heavily on our communicative gestures, while other dogs are more like chimpanzees and try to solve problems on their own without our help. Louie seems to use a mixed strategy. Because Louie could see food in both places, she didn't really need your help, but occasionally chose to follow your gestures anyway.

Foot Pointing

Just like in the hand pointing game, Louie thought she had better cover all her bases by sometimes choosing the treat you pointed at and sometimes striking out on her own.

Louie probably does not see you point with your foot very often, so this game was a way of seeing how flexibly Louie can read new gestures. Giving animals a new version of a problem they have seen before is a common tactic used to reveal what strategy they are using to solve a problem.

Although Louie did not follow you every time, she may have sensed your communicative intent, and would probably not need much practice to start using a range of new gestures.

Memory versus Smell

Since dogs have such a keen sense of smell, you may have been surprised that after you switched the cups, Louie used her memory over her sense of smell. She went to where she remembered seeing the treat hidden, rather than sniffing out where the treat was.

Because a dog's nose can sniff everything from narcotics to cancer, whenever we run a study where we hide a treat under one of two cups, the first question people always ask is, "Can't my dog just smell the food under the cup?" It was certainly our first question, but extensive research by half a dozen independent research groups has concluded that dogs do not rely on their sense of smell to find the food in these games.

If dogs were using smell, they would go directly to the cup with the hidden food. In fact, these studies found that dogs only choose the correct cup around half the time - which means they are guessing. Dogs do have an excellent sense of smell and can probably detect food if allowed to sniff both cups before choosing. But when you study their first choice, they cannot localize the food to a specific cup from a distance of six feet away.

Delayed Cup Game

This game was a perfect demonstration of Louie's excellent working memory. After you hid the treat Louie had to retain the information for up to two and a half minutes before making a choice.

This skill comes in handy in the wild. Feral dogs tend to be endurance hunters, slowly wearing down their prey. During the chase, the prey may not always be in direct sight, and feral dogs have to remember where their prey was last seen and predict where they might reappear.

Memory versus Pointing

Louie clearly sees you as someone to believe in. When Louie saw you put the treat under one cup then point to the other cup, she chose to rely on your communicative gestures rather than what she can see and remember.

It's no wonder Louie was so collaborative in the Communication dimension. She is an expert when it comes to reading your gestures, and relies on your input in all kinds of situations.

Inferential Reasoning Game

This was probably the most difficult game, and Louie's performance was excellent. In this game, we presented Louie with a problem and you provided some, but not all, of the information needed to solve it. When you showed Louie the empty cup, you were providing indirect information on where the treat was - she had to make an inference that because that cup was empty, the treat must be in the other cup.

Just because Louie did not choose the cup with the reward, it doesn't mean that she failed. In fact, this shows a strongly cooperative nature. By lifting up the empty cup, you were actually drawing attention to it, and Louie preferred to choose this cup over the other. Louie views you as a cooperative partner and assumed that you were trying to help her by showing her the correct cup.

In the Communication dimension, Louie was highly responsive to your social cues. To Louie, you are the perfect partner in crime and she will turn to you any time she needs help.

Physical Reasoning Game

Louie did seem to understand the principle of solidity - that one solid object cannot pass through another - at least some of the time.

Although this might have seemed like a simple game, it was actually quite complicated. First, Louie had to infer that you hid a treat (since Louie didn't actually see you hide it). Then she had to understand enough of the physical world to infer that a piece of paper at an angle indicated that the treat was hidden behind it. It is impressive that Louie figured out the answer as often as she did.