Yawn Game

In this game, you yawned and recorded whether Moona 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.

Moona 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

This game was based on research that showed that owners whose dogs stared at them for longer periods of time had significant increases in the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin, also known as the "hug hormone," is related to feelings of bonding, pleasure and affection.

Moona is more wolf-like when it comes to eye contact. Wolves do not seek out the gaze of humans like dogs do. But this doesn't mean that wolves are not bonded to their pack members. They have other ways of connecting. Similarly, not all dogs connect with their owners through eye contact. You know better than anyone how Moona displays her affection for you. But if you are looking for ways to increase oxytocin in a similar way to eye contact, research has shown that hugging and playing with your dog for half an hour raises oxytocin in both you and your dog. You should engage in as many of these play sessions as possible. According to one study, it's more relaxing than reading a book!

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. Moona seems to use a mixed strategy. Because Moona 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, Moona thought she had better cover all her bases by sometimes choosing the treat you pointed at and sometimes striking out on her own.

Moona probably does not see you point with your foot very often, so this game was a way of seeing how flexibly Moona 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 Moona 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 Pointing

In this game, Moona saw you put the treat under one cup, but point to the other cup. Moona preferred to rely on the information in her working memory rather than what you pointed to. Even though you gave Moona misleading information, she remembered where the treat was and chose to ignore you. This shows an independent thinker; you should be aware that in other situations Moona might not listen to you if she thinks you are wrong.

Memory versus Smell

Since dogs have such a keen sense of smell, you may have been surprised that after you switched the cups, Moona 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 Moona's excellent working memory. After you hid the treat Moona 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.

Inferential Reasoning Game

Congratulations - when playing the most difficult game in the most difficult dimension, Moona's performance was masterful. When you showed Moona 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.

This ability to infer by exclusion is problematic for most dogs because they are often confused by conflicting social cues. By lifting up the empty cup, you were actually drawing attention to it, and some dogs prefer to choose this cup even though it was empty. The fact that Moona was able to control this impulse shows an impressive ability to make inferences.

What is even more impressive is that Moona was so collaborative in the Communication dimension. It seems that Moona knows exactly when to use your gestures to make decisions and when to make decisions on her own.

Physical Reasoning Game

Moona 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, Moona had to infer that you hid a treat (since Moona 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 Moona figured out the answer as often as she did.

By no means did Moona do badly on this game; in fact, she developed quite a clever strategy. She developed a right or left side bias, meaning when she didn't know which side was correct, she went to one side every time. This is pretty clever, because 50% of the time she was correct.