STRAY DOGS & HUMAN GESTURES

A five-year research led by Dr Anindita Bhadra points to a more peaceful co-existence between free-roaming canines—which number hundreds of millions worldwide—and people

- Dr Anindita Bhadra

If you have a dog, hopefully, you’re lucky enough to know that they are highly attuned to their owners and can readily understand a wide range of commands and gestures. But are these abilities innate or are they exclusively learned through training? To investigate, a behavioral biologist working with free-ranging (stray) dogs, Dr. Anindita Bhadra, of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, and her colleagues studied stray dogs across several cities over a period of five years. The researchers approached solitary stray dogs and placed two covered bowls on the ground near them. A researcher then pointed to one of the two bowls, either momentarily or repeatedly, and recorded whether the dog approached the indicated bowl. They also recorded the perceived emotional state of the dogs during the experiment.