Did you know your dog has the ability to intentionally deceive you? Dog tricks enable our friends to get what they want, from other dogs and from their humans. That sly look may not be as innocent as scientists once thought! Doggie deceptive behaviors enable our canine friends to abscond with treats or get the best sleeping spots. Our clever canines know how to read us. They figure out if we are competitors or accomplices. If we are competitors, our dogs can use deception to lead us astray. If we are accomplices, they certainly know how to enlist our help. Our devious dogs know the art of tactical misdirection.
Tricky Dogs Get What They Want
Marianne Heberlein, who studies dog cognition at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, noticed that her own dogs seemed to be tricking each other out of prime sleeping spots in her backyard. The dog who wanted the prime real estate would “pretend” to find something interesting, so the dog resting in the spot would get up and come investigate. The trickster then gained the upper hand, taking over the resting spot. While many of us have observed our canine companions misdirecting their furry friends to sneak in and get what they want, little has been done to study these behaviors.
Dog Tricks – The Deceptive Behavior Study
Heberlein designed a study to see if dogs really could use tactical misdirection. In this study, one person (the accomplice) would always give the test dog a sausage treat. Another person (the competitor) would always keep the sausage treat for themselves. Once the dogs learned who was who, the dogs were given the opportunity to separately direct these two people to one of three boxes. One box held a sausage, one a dry biscuit, and the third box nothing. If the dog directed the accomplice to a box with a sausage or a biscuit, the dog got that treat. If they directed the competitor to a treat box, the human kept the treat. (Bummer.) After the dog took either the accomplice or competitor to a box, the dog was then given the opportunity to direct their owner to a box. The owners always gave the dog what was left in the box.
Sausage Rewards for Tricky Dogs
The dogs quickly learned that directing the human accomplice to the sausage was rewarding. They got the sausage from the human accomplice and later they also got the biscuit from their owner. Dogs also quickly learned that taking the competitive human to the sausage box meant no sausage for the dog! The owner would not even be able to give them a sausage because the competitor had already taken it. The owner, of course, was still able to give the dog a biscuit treat but really, what dog would chose a dry biscuit over a yummy sausage. By misdirecting the competitive human to the empty box, the dogs insured that their owners would be able to give them a sausage. So that is what the dogs did. They misdirected the competitive human to the empty box. That way the dog’s owners could still get the sausage for them. Clever canines!
So keep a close eye on your furry friend. Dog tricks are for real. Our dogs may even be smiling at us when they get their own way.