Dogs and small children who share similar social environments
appear to understand human gestures in comparable ways,
according to Gabriella Lakatos from Eötvös University in
Budapest, Hungary, and her team. Looking at how dogs and young
children respond to adult pointing actions, Lakatos shows that
3-year-olds rely on the direction of the index finger to locate
a hidden object, whereas 2-year-olds and dogs respond instead to
the protruding body part, even if the index finger is pointing
in the opposite direction. It is widely accepted that in the
course of domestication, dogs became predisposed to read human
communication signals, including pointing, head turning and
gazing. Furthermore, the social environment of human infants is
often shared by pet dogs in the family, and therefore there are
likely to be similarities in the social stimulation of both
young children and dogs. The authors carried out two studies in
which they compared the performance of adult dogs and 2- and
3-year-old children - the period o