GabyThe team from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna has unveiled a simple yet effective way to communicate with dogs. Any dog owner knows how challenging it can be to capture the attention of their furry friend and get them to obey commands. However, animal behavior researchers have discovered a straightforward method that encourages dogs to listen more attentively and follow human commands. This technique involves pointing at an object while simultaneously making eye contact with the dog.
So, how did the study unfold? The researchers enlisted 20 dogs of various breeds, including mixed breeds, Staffordshire Terriers, Australian Shepherds, and Poodles. Each dog was fitted with a helmet equipped with eye-tracking technology. The researchers positioned themselves opposite the dogs, with bowls placed on either side of them—one containing a treat. The dogs were tasked with choosing the “correct” bowl based on the researchers’ signals. The team presented the dogs with several different scenarios, each repeated six times, as reported by the Daily Mail. Specifically, the scientists either pointed to the bowl while looking at the dog, pointed and looked at the bowl simultaneously, or simply looked at the bowl. They also employed a classic ruse, pretending to throw a ball while actually holding it in their hand.
Footage collected from the helmets revealed that dogs responded better to commands when the researcher pointed and looked at the bowl of treats at the same time. “When pointing and maintaining eye contact, dogs sustained their attention on the referent longer compared to other conditions and approached it significantly more often than in cases of random selection,” the researchers noted in their report. The dogs performed the worst when the scientists pretended to throw the ball. The team concluded that focused observation of an object combined with pointing are two effective tactics for training domestic animals. However, the combination of both techniques proved to be the most effective way to get pets to follow commands. “The simultaneous use of a pointing gesture and focused gaze is an especially effective method for directing dogs’ attention to an object,” the animal psychologists emphasized. The findings of the study were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
