Worldwide Seminar of The Family Dog Project

2016.11.24.

Program below

Student’s report on attending the 2nd Worldwide Seminar of The Family Dog Project

Author: Ivaylo Iotchev

When I was a Bachelor student, I remember attending an extra-curricular lecture on the difference between, to put it in old-fashioned words, ‘man and beast’. That was in 2007 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. One of the philosophers began his lecture with, I paraphrase: “Obviously, there’s something fundamentally different between humans and other animals! After all, I do not see any animals in the audience…”

Years later, I wish the very same philosopher had witnessed the 2nd Worldwide Free seminar of the Family Dog Project in 2016, live-streamed from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest (ELTE), organised by Dr. Eniko Kubinyi, Hungary. Dogs were allowed and abundantly present in the lecture hall, although the extent to which they could have followed the lectures is a matter of ongoing research, as one of the speakers – Dr. Attila Andics, would elaborate on.

The Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University (Hungary) has made a considerable effort to enrich our understanding of the dog mind. This is another reason I felt reminded of the discussion I witnessed in 2007. Just how unique or not the human mind is, is an age-old question which has bothered philosophers, psychologists and biologists of all times. Dog owners are a particularly grateful audience for this type of discussion. Bonding with another species confronts you with this question every day!

The treats the seminar had to offer dog owners did not stop at the almost philosophical question about the dog’s inner life, although Dr. Andics and Dr. Fugazza offered valuable food for thought on the matter with their investigations into word-processing and imitation. The information presented covered an immense variety of dog-related topics, thereby tackling some more practical problems of dog ownership, like Dr. Pongrácz presentation on whether dogs are more intimidated by men or Dr. Gácsi’s talk on the sensory competencies (specifically odor) of different dog breeds (and wolves). Some of the knowledge presented could one day easily translate to measures relevant to the welfare and dignity of aging dogs, a central topic in the research group of Dr. Kubinyi. The presentations went on to include issues relevant to the methodology of behavioral research (Bence Ferdinandy and Dr. Linda Gerencsér), wolf-human communication (Dr. Ujfalussy), dog-inspired robots (Dr. Kis) and many other topics…

Each speaker came along with their very own style, helping the audience to keep up a high level of attention throughout a long and informative evening. Dr. Andics used his own enthusiasm to infect the audience, whereas Dr. Pongrácz appealed to their sense of humor. Other speakers relied on highlighting special moments in their line of work so the audience would catch a glimpse of the life of Hungary’s canine methuselahs (Dr. Kubinyi) or see wolves on leashes or in other peculiar contexts that could create the illusion of them being good dogs (Dr. Gácsi, Dr. Ujfalussy). Of course, the scientists took good care to maintain a clear distinction between facts and fiction.

What made the seminar, as a whole, a worthwhile experience was also the welcoming atmosphere. The extra comfortable beanbag chairs for human and non-human animals, the affordable food buffet and the miniature book shop. Much in the spirit of diversity created by the choice of topics in the actual seminar, the bookshop’s list of genres ranged from facts to fiction regarding the animal mind. All in all, the worldwide free seminar of the Family Dog Project offered its visitors an interesting mixture of focus and diversity. The focus was on dogs, but the broader connection of canine research to the fields of evolutionary biology, comparative psychology, behavior, scientific methods in general, veterinary medicine, sensory processing, robotics and many more were setting a great example of how good science can maintain an eye for both detail and the big picture.

Aims and scope

Organized by the MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group; the Ethology Department of Eötvös Loránd University; The Hungarian Ethology Foundation & Comparative Behavioural Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Program organisers: Enikő Kubinyi, Péter Pongrácz, Ádám Miklósi.

Since the foundation of the Family Dog Project by Vilmos Csányi, Ádám Miklósi, József Topál and Antal Dóka in 1994, our biggest supporters have been the owners, who participate in our research on a voluntary basis with their dogs.

However, the results from the numerous studies, and the scientific papers themselves (which may have taken years to publish), are written in a foreign language, riddled with scientific terms, and therefore it could happen that the Hungarian owners do not find out about the results of the study that they participated in.

To address this issue, in the frame of the Celebration of Hungarian Science series, in 2013 we decided to organise a yearly conference where participants can listen to the Family Dog Project’s researchers report the results of the current year’s publications relating to dog behaviour. Our goal was to present these science-related topics in a comprehensible form to non-experts and dog lovers and thus show our gratitude to the dog owners who support us every day, by volunteering with their dogs and participating in our studies.

The yearly Family Dog Project Seminar is not only for those who can attend personally; we also provide all the talks in English as well as Hungarian, with a live online broadcast on the internet which is free for all to enjoy!

Program 2016

Chair: Lisa Wallis, PhD

17:00-17:05 Welcome/Opening speech by Prof. Ádám Miklósi, head of the Ethology Department

17:05-17:20 Anna Kis, PhD: Do robots make good dogs? An example of how studies on dog behaviour can advance the development of social robotics

17:20-17:35 Krisztina Hegedűs-Kovács: Effects of oxytocin on social sensitivity in two breeds of dogs: a comparison of the Siberian husky and Border collie.

17:35-17:50 József Topál, DSc: The effect of oxytocin on biological motion perception in dogs.

17:50-17:55 BREAK

17:55-18:10 Linda Gerencsér, PhD & Bence Ferdinandy: Next generation automated systems: real-time behavior recognition in dogs and wolves.

18:10-18:25 Prof. Ádám Miklósi: Can dogs remember what their owner did?

18:25-18:40 Claudia Fugazza, PhD: Spatial bias in deferred imitation performance – Will your dog go where you go?

18:40-18:45 BREAK

18:45-19:00 Anna Gergely, PhD: Look, who am I talking to? Similarities between baby-talk and doggerel

19:00-19:15 Attila Andics, PhD: What do dogs understand from human speech? – an fMRI study

19:15-19:30 Enikő Kubinyi, PhD: Introducing the Senior Family Dog Project

19:30-19:35 BREAK

19:35-19:50 Dorottya Ujfalussy, PhD: “What do you make of me?” Greeting behaviour of hand reared socialised wolves toward humans

19:50-20:05 Márta Gácsi, PhD: How can we measure canine olfactory capacity? Comparison of wolves and various dog breeds

20:05-20:20 Péter Pongrácz, PhD: The truth is in the dog growls – women are scary, but men are scarier

20:20-20:30 CLOSING THOUGHTS

Program 2015

12 talks from Family Dog Project authors about research studies published in 2015. Videos are available on YouTube.

For abstracts and inserted videos, see below

Program

Prof. Ádám Miklósi, DSc: Introduction

What dog-machine interaction tells us about dogs’ social skills
Prof. Ádám Miklósi, DSc: New approach to study social skills in dogs: Interaction with robots
Anna Gergely, PhD: Was this a pointing or not – what makes a simple movement communicative?
Judit Abdai: The story of the remote-controlled car that deceived a dog

Mechanisms of social behaviour
Anna Kis, PhD: The effect of oxytocin on dogs’ social behaviour
József Topál, DSc: What or where? How do dogs read human pointing gestures?
Enikő Kubinyi, PhD: The genetics of greeting
Attila Andics, PhD: How does dog's brain process stress?

Human-dog relationship
Márta Gácsi, PhD: Eyes or nose – which navigates our dogs?
Veronika Konok, PhD: Effect of owner's characteristics on the separation anxiety of the dog
Dóra Szabó: Various ways to investigate aging in dogs
Tamás Faragó, PhD: Barks without boundaries – do people in different countries understand dog barks similarly?
Péter Pongrácz, PhD: The dark side of barking – what makes dog barking a nuisance?

When: November the 7th 15:15 CET
(2:15 p.m. UTC; 09:15 a.m. NYT; 06:15 a.m. PST)

Where: Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Pázmány Péter sétány. 1/c, Kitaibel room. Attendance is free of charge. The seminar is not only for those who can attend it personally but with live online broadcasting on the internet!

Live broadcast: UStream

Videos

Video invitation by Professor Ádám Miklósi, head of Family Dog Project

Program:

15:15 (1:15 p.m. UTC; 09:15 a.m. NYT; 06:15 a.m. PST) Prof. Ádám Miklósi, DSc WELCOME

Topic 1: What dog-machine interaction tells us about dogs’ social skills

15:30 Prof. Ádám Miklósi, DSc New approach to study social skills in dogs: Interaction with robots

Robots are getting very popular. Researchers like them too because they can offer many new ways of investigations. Dogs may also show some social behaviour towards them under specific conditions, and it is a very interesting question how this relationship is comparable to dogs' relationship with humans. Also, on a more futuristic level, one may ask how or whether the human-dog bond may change in the new technological age.

15:50 Anna Gergely, PhD Was this a pointing or not – what makes a simple movement communicative?

If I ask dog owners whether their dogs understand their pointing gesture, most of them say yes of course! If I ask them whether their dogs born with this skill or learn it, the answers are more divided. In this study, we used a novel method in order to investigate the aforementioned question. We found that after a short social interaction dogs successfully utilized an unfamiliar self-propelled objects’ movement to find hidden food. Rapid learning in our study highlighted the importance of innate sensitivity to directional movements and suggested that the social skills of the dogs might be more flexible than we thought!

16:10 Judit Abdai The story of the remote-controlled car that deceived a dog

When offering dogs a smaller and a larger food quantity, most of them choose the latter one. This is not a surprise. What is more surprising is that when a human (even a stranger) indicates the food quantity opposite to the primary preference of the dog, they tend to follow the human’s indication. Is this social bias restricted to human partners alone? In this talk, I show that in some cases, an unfamiliar self-propelled, non-living agent can mislead dogs in such situations as well; however, without the special bond between dogs and humans, this little agent probably would not have a chance.

16:30 ROUNDTABLE Miklósi, Gergely, Abdai

16:50 BREAK

Topic 2: Mechanisms of social behaviour

17:10 Anna Kis, PhD The effect of oxytocin on dogs’ social behaviour

Oxytocin has earned itself the name of "magical trust elixir" in the popular media due to its positive effect on several complex human behaviours. At the same time as recent human studies point to the fact that the effect of oxytcin is not as straightforward as thought before, research has started to investigate this relationship in dogs as well. The talk will present two studies on the effect of oxytocin on dog behaviour and discuss the potential applied importance as well as the limitations.

17:30 József Topál, DSc What or where? How dogs read human pointing gestures?

There is a general impression among naïve “dog-lovers” that a dog’s mind often works in a childlike manner. Although this belief has long been rejected by most scientists, the situation in the last few years has radically changed. There is increasing scientific agreement that dogs often effortlessly ’understand’ what the behaviour of their human partner is about, and they identify human communicative behaviours in ways similar to preverbal human infants. We present some empirical evidence of dogs’ ability to read human pointing gestures. Our experiments show that (1)dogs are sensitive to the order of signal sequences, and (2)human pointing refers to a direction or location for dogs, but only if the gesture is preceded by signals indicating the actor’s communicative intention.

17:50 Enikő Kubinyi, PhD The genetics of greeting

Meeting humans is an everyday experience for companion dogs, and their emotional reactivity in these situations is of major interest to owners and trainers. According to our results, it is highly likely that oxytocin and opioid receptor gene variants affect this behaviour. However, ontogenetic experiences has an important role too: while every second beagle do not approach a friendly, unfamiliar woman in a greeting test, only a minority (3%) of family beagles do so.

18:10 Attila Andics, PhD How does dog brain process stress?

Dogs seem to differ in what sounds they find scary: fireworks, thunderings, growling dogs or shouting people. But we know little about how they process stressing information. The talk will present a new dog brain imaging study. We found, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), that different brain regions process social and non-social stress in dogs, and that certain brain response patterns are good predictors of how fearful a dog is of a specific stressing sound type.

18:30 ROUNDTABLE Kis, Topál, Kubinyi, Andics

18:50 BREAK

Topic 3: Human-dog relationship

19:10 Márta Gácsi, PhD Eyes or nose – which navigates our dogs?

It is widely known that dogs have a super sense of smell. But do untrained family dogs spontaneously utilize their highly effective noses for problem solving, for example to find their owners in a room if they cannot see her? In the present paper we report two studies that examine what strategies family dogs use in two types of olfaction-based tasks and how successful they are at various distances. Our experimental results suggest that despite their potential ability to successfully collect information through olfaction, family dogs often prefer other strategies (for example, using visual cues or win-stay strategy) to solve a basic choice task.

19:30 Veronika Konok, PhD Effect of owner's characteristics on the separation anxiety of the dog

Dogs attach to the owner, that is, they seek the proximity of the owner and show stress behaviour during separation. However, some dogs' separation behaviour is extreme in degree: they have a behaviour disorder called separation anxiety. But why could this problem develop? We found that the owners of these dogs have an avoidant attachment style which means that they avoid close relationships and intimacy. Perhaps this makes the owners less responsive to the dog's contact-seeking behaviour and this may explain our other finding that these dogs trust less the owner (they have an insecure, anxious attachment style), which may lead to the development of the disorder

19:50 Dóra Szabó Various ways to investigate aging in dogs

Everyone gets old, even our dogs. But the devil lies in the details. What is the difference between 'simply old' dogs and dogs suffering from dementia? What do we know about age-related cognitive changes and what can we do against them? Why is it so complicated to study it in family dogs? For instance, results suggest that while old dogs will not pay as much attention to moving objects anymore, their interest in people still remains. In this talk I will summarize what is currently known based on scientific studies around the world and what are the blank spaces needed to be filled during the following years.

20:10 Tamás Faragó, PhD Barks without boundaries – do people in different countries understand dog barks similarly?

Although humans seem to be surprisingly successful in assessing the emotional state of dogs from their barks, some cultural differences can affect this ability. To test this we replicated our former study on Portuguese participants where they had to listen to barks and rate the inner state of the dogs or try to figure out the social context of the barks, then we compared their responses to our Hungarian sample. During my talk I will show the striking similarities and surprising differences between the two group of people. Also I will present some interesting effects of gender and individual experiences.

20:30 Péter Pongrácz, PhD The dark side of barking – what makes dog barking a nuisance?

Barking is one of the most characteristic features of dogs. In the last decade ethologists discovered several aspects of the communicative value of dog barking. At the same time, it remained uninvestigated why and what type of barks annoy people the most - contributing to the environmental noise pollution. In a joint study between Hzngary and Brazil, we found that men are annoyed more by barking than women. From acoustical aspects, high pitched ('complaining', 'desperate'), and deep, harsh, fast ('aggressive') barks annoyed people the most. These effects seems to be universal for participants in Europe and the new World.

20:50 ROUNDTABLE Gácsi, Pongrácz, Szabó, Faragó, Konok