Why Is That Dog Looking at Me?

Aren&#x27;t they overlooking the fairly straightforward explanation that domesticated dogs were evolutionarily selected for looking at humans because they were rewarded with food? I note that most of the tests they are using involve food. But verifying that feral dogs behave in the same way is also a good idea (noted in the article). My guess is that they will - feral kittens seem to know to cozy up to humans when begging for food.<p>They should try tests involving something other than food that inspires dogs - like attempting to get access to a female in heat, and see if the dogs bother looking at humans in that scenario.

I know people tend to underestimate how difficult other people&#x27;s work is, but do you really need a doctorate and a university to do research like this? Why not just do it at home as a hobby and if you want Indian feral dogs, hire some Indian freelancers to perform the experiment and video it.<p>Are they just trying to do anything to keep their job? What kind of university lets its well qualified staff do things so far beneath their ability?

I&#x27;m pretty sure they learn that if they look at us we&#x27;ll try to fix their problems for them. I think the whole &quot;training&quot; thing goes both ways with dogs and humans. My dog has trained me to let her back into the house when she makes a noise outside the back door, it&#x27;s the only place she makes this particular noise and she started doing that by herself.

Dogs are mostly wolves with neotenic traits, it would be interesting to see how wolf and dog pups behave in the same test when presented with an impossible task, and, if they behave identically, at what age they diverge.<p>Likewise for dogs and wolves raised by their biological parent (assuming dogs treat their owner as a surrogate parent).

Stressing each part of that sentence separately, I got five different meanings. English is a strange language.

Not really i question i would think to ask as my instant thought was:<p>They have selfs learned that if i look at a human the human will eventually fix my problems for me.

Slightly off topic but I had a friend who was scared of dogs because they looked at him. We had to cross the road if there was a dog coming.

Betteridge&#x27;s law of headlines fails us in this case.