Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>)
Spatial navigation allows animals to understand their environment position and is crucial to survival. An animal’s primary mode of spatial navigation (horizontal or vertical) is dependent on how they naturally move in space. Observations of the domestic dog (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) have...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2024-11-01
|
| Series: | Animals |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/22/3316 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1846154599292993536 |
|---|---|
| author | Lila Muscosky Alexandra Horowitz |
| author_facet | Lila Muscosky Alexandra Horowitz |
| author_sort | Lila Muscosky |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Spatial navigation allows animals to understand their environment position and is crucial to survival. An animal’s primary mode of spatial navigation (horizontal or vertical) is dependent on how they naturally move in space. Observations of the domestic dog (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) have shown that they, like other terrestrial animals, navigate poorly in vertical space. This deficit is visible in their use of multi-story buildings. To date, no research has been conducted to determine if dogs can learn how to navigate in an anthropogenic vertical environment with the help of a landmark. As such, we herein investigate the effect of the addition of a visual or olfactory landmark on dogs’ ability to identify when they are on their home floor. Subject behaviors toward their home door and a contrasting floor door were compared before and after exposure to a landmark outside of their home door. While subjects initially showed no difference in latency to approach an apartment door on their home or a wrong floor, we found a significant difference in latency to approach the doors in the test trials for subjects who approached the doors in every trial. Other findings are equivocal, but this result is consistent with the hypothesis that dogs can learn to navigate in vertical space. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1e640c77bb7c4ad79aec4d51550ef634 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2076-2615 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Animals |
| spelling | doaj-art-1e640c77bb7c4ad79aec4d51550ef6342024-11-26T17:46:10ZengMDPI AGAnimals2076-26152024-11-011422331610.3390/ani14223316Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>)Lila Muscosky0Alexandra Horowitz1Dog Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, Barnard College, New York, NY 10027, USADog Cognition Lab, Department of Psychology, Barnard College, New York, NY 10027, USASpatial navigation allows animals to understand their environment position and is crucial to survival. An animal’s primary mode of spatial navigation (horizontal or vertical) is dependent on how they naturally move in space. Observations of the domestic dog (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) have shown that they, like other terrestrial animals, navigate poorly in vertical space. This deficit is visible in their use of multi-story buildings. To date, no research has been conducted to determine if dogs can learn how to navigate in an anthropogenic vertical environment with the help of a landmark. As such, we herein investigate the effect of the addition of a visual or olfactory landmark on dogs’ ability to identify when they are on their home floor. Subject behaviors toward their home door and a contrasting floor door were compared before and after exposure to a landmark outside of their home door. While subjects initially showed no difference in latency to approach an apartment door on their home or a wrong floor, we found a significant difference in latency to approach the doors in the test trials for subjects who approached the doors in every trial. Other findings are equivocal, but this result is consistent with the hypothesis that dogs can learn to navigate in vertical space.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/22/3316dog cognitionlandmark learningspatial navigationvertical navigationanimal cognition |
| spellingShingle | Lila Muscosky Alexandra Horowitz Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) Animals dog cognition landmark learning spatial navigation vertical navigation animal cognition |
| title | Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) |
| title_full | Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) |
| title_fullStr | Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) |
| title_short | Distinguishing Doors and Floors on All Fours: Landmarks as Tools for Vertical Navigation Learning in Domestic Dogs (<i>Canis familiaris</i>) |
| title_sort | distinguishing doors and floors on all fours landmarks as tools for vertical navigation learning in domestic dogs i canis familiaris i |
| topic | dog cognition landmark learning spatial navigation vertical navigation animal cognition |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/22/3316 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT lilamuscosky distinguishingdoorsandfloorsonallfourslandmarksastoolsforverticalnavigationlearningindomesticdogsicanisfamiliarisi AT alexandrahorowitz distinguishingdoorsandfloorsonallfourslandmarksastoolsforverticalnavigationlearningindomesticdogsicanisfamiliarisi |