What happens when wolf puppies are around humans 24/7 and dog puppies get human interaction, but a great deal less?
You would think the wolf pups would be more tightly bound to the humans, but you would be wrong.
It appears that dogs and wolves are fundamentally different, not just in estrus cycles, ability to digest starches, barking vs howling, dominance displays, and social hierarchies, but also in their interest and focus on humans.
Research shows that dog puppies are 30 times more interested in unknown humans than young wolves, confirming an evolutionary hypothesis that dogs are genetically evolved to partner better with people than their wild cousins.
The scientists put 44 dog and 37 wolf puppies, all between five and 18 weeks old, through a slate of tests and challenges. In one task, researchers placed a treat in one of two bowls, then pointed a finger at the bowl containing the snack three times. The dog puppies were twice as likely to understand where to go even though they had experienced far less human contact, results that held up when the researchers made sure the pups were not just smelling the morsel of food. And in a separate test, the dogs were 30 times more likely to approach an unknown human and made significantly more eye contact with people than the little wolves, the researchers report today in Current Biology.
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