Domestic dogs have a close bond with people; and some traits, such as sociability and learning rate, can modulate the communication between the two species. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the presence of correlations between sociability, gaze duration toward the human face when food is unavailable, and an inhibitory learning task consisting in inhibit a non-social behavior (approach a source of food) to deploy a social response (reply to the call from an unknown person). For this, the sociability test was previously validated, measuring the stability of the trait through a test-retest evaluation of the subjects. The results suggest the stability of sociability over time. Furthermore, significant correlations between sociability and gaze duration, but not with the inhibitory learning task, were observed. Both, sociability and gaze responses seem to be essential to the development of different kinds of training.
Putrino, N., Jakovcevic, A., Carpintero, S., D´Orazio, M., & Bentosela, M. (2014). Are there associations between sociability, learning and dog-human communication?. Revista De Psicología, 23(1), 84–92. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-0581.2014.32876
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