ArticleScientific reports2021
Shorter headed dogs, visually cooperative breeds, younger and playful dogs form eye contact faster with an unfamiliar human.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Showing Behaviour in One Hundred and One Dogs: Gazing, Breed and Cephalic Index.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- The Role of Olfaction in Dogs: Evolution, Biology, and Human-Oriented Work.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Attention and improvement: social learning reveals two behavioural dimensions behind dog-human interactions.Evolutionary human sciences · 2026Article
- Spatial Problem-Solving in Working Dogs: The Combined Effect of Body-Size Awareness, Social Learning and Functional Breed Selection.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- "My Little Son, My Everything": Comparative Caregiving and Emotional Bonds in Dog and Child Parenting.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Selective attraction to shorter muzzles in dogs is a hidden driver of the brachycephalic welfare crisis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Natural Born Detourers Modern Utility Dog Breeds Show Ancestry-Based Superiority in Social Learning Capacity in a Detour Task.Evolutionary applications · 2025Article
- Selection for Short-Nose and Small Size Creates a Behavioural Trade-Off in Dogs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Let's talk about "talking" dogs! Reviewing the science behind a bold idea.Biologia futura · 2025Review
- Dogs as a model to study the emergence of concept manipulation skills for language-readiness.Biologia futura · 2025Review
- Sensing Dog Brain Reactions to Smell by AI Speckle Pattern Analysis.Journal of biophotonics · 2025Article
- Italians Can Resist Everything, Except Flat-Faced Dogs!Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Dogs' Gazing Behavior to Humans Is Related to Their Liveliness, Aggressiveness, and the Emotional Comfort They Provide.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Body Awareness Does Not Need a Pedigree: Mixed-Breed Dogs Rely More on Self-Representation Than Social Learning in a Spatial Task.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Behavioural differences and similarities between dog breeds: proposing an ecologically valid approach for canine behavioural research.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- Breed differences in olfactory performance of dogs.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Do ostensive verbal signals have a unique importance when communicating with dogs?Evolutionary human sciences · 2025Article
- Dog-Owner Relationship and Its Association with Social Cognition in French Bulldogs.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Forming eye contact is important in dog-human communication. In this study we measured what factors affect dogs' propensity for forming eye contact with an experimenter. We investigated the effect of [1] cephalic index (head shape's metric, indicator of higher visual acuity at the centre of the visual field), [2] breed function (visual cooperativeness), [3] age and [4] playfulness with strangers in 125 companion dogs. Cephalic index was measured individually and analysed as a continuous variable. Results showed that [1] dogs with a higher cephalic index (shorter head) established eye contact faster. Since cephalic index is highly variable even within a breed, using artificial head shape groups or breed average cephalic index values is not recommended. [2] Breed function also affected dogs' performance: cooperative breeds and mongrels established eye contact faster than dogs from non-cooperative breeds. [3] Younger dogs formed eye contact faster than older ones. [4] More playful dogs formed eye contact faster. Our results suggest that several factors affect dogs' interspecific attention, and therefore their visual communication ability.
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