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Social Learning in Animals
Babies begin to adapt to society’s survival rules from the moment they take their wobbly first steps—learning where they can go and where they can’t, what is safe and what is dangerous.
But we don’t always need to “learn the hard way” every time; in some dangerous situations, one mistake might mean there’s no second chance…
One of the benefits of being a “social creature” is social learning.
Dogs are no exception. As the saying goes, “All learning is social, and all socializing is learning.”
Social learning refers to the process by which young individuals learn what benefits them by observing the behaviors of older ones (usually their mother or other elders).
However, for pet dogs the situation is much more complex. Each puppy is surrounded by two species: their own kind and humans. Both sides offer important information.
So, if we compare the learning effects, is it faster to learn among their own kind or more effective to learn from humans?
The answer is: dogs learn from humans faster!
Experiment One: Learning from Other Dogs
Claudia Fugazza, a leading figure at the University of Idaho’s Animal Behavior Institute, led a team in conducting an experiment. They gathered eight-week-old puppies of various breeds—including Labradors, Belgian Shepherds, Border Collies, and others—and tasked them with solving two problems, each aimed at retrieving a sausage from a box.
One box was opened by lifting its lid, while the other had to be pushed open from one end like a drawer.
The researchers first brought out the sausage for the puppies to smell, then placed it inside the box and closed it.
In the independent exploration phase, only 50% of the puppies managed to open the box and get to the sausage within two minutes.
In the first experiment, the puppies were placed in a cage one meter away from the box, where they could clearly observe how other dogs solved the problem. The demonstration was given either by their mother or by a stranger dog.
After the demonstration, the puppies were released to see what they had learned.
The results showed that after watching their mother’s demonstration, the puppies’ likelihood of retrieving the sausage within two minutes increased by 5%. However, after observing a stranger dog, the success rate increased by 29%!
This indicates that puppies pay close attention to the behavior of stranger dogs and rarely focus closely on their own mothers…
It’s not hard to understand—many children seem to learn nothing at home, but once they start kindergarten, they learn everything!
(It appears that it’s not just humans who tend to disregard their mothers’ advice.)
An important point is that the puppies’ learning wasn’t mere mimicry of actions—they actually grasped the underlying principle of how to retrieve the food from the box.
During the demonstrations, some dogs used their snouts while others used their paws to open the box. Regardless of the method shown, the puppies uniformly used their own snouts to open the box, indicating that they understood where the real mechanism lay.
Animals naturally learn survival skills from their own kind.
But on the other hand, pet dogs are born and raised in a human environment, interacting with people far more often than with other dogs. So, can they learn the rules from humans?
Experiment Two: Learning from Humans
In the second experiment, a human demonstrated to the puppies how to open the box, with all other steps remaining the same.
The results were striking: after watching the human demonstration, the puppies’ likelihood of solving the problem within two minutes increased by 42%! This shows that dogs learn more—and more efficiently—from humans than from their own kind.
The researchers also discovered that the puppies didn’t forget what they learned immediately. When tested again an hour later, they still remembered how to open the box. This really validates the saying that “dogs follow their owners”—after spending enough time with their humans, they truly do “copy and paste” their behavior.
This isn’t just because dogs are inherently smart and observant, but also because behind them there’s an “excellent teacher” subtly imparting lessons through example.
Once again, it’s been proven that the phrase “dogs follow their owners” isn’t said in vain.
They’re always watching, and then they start to imitate—from actions to habits…
Conclusion
Because dogs are filled with love for their owners, they constantly watch every move their owner makes. As long as something interests their owner, they become equally enthusiastic.
For them, what they do isn’t the key—the important thing is being with their owner, which makes them the happiest of all.
Perhaps this is the deeper reason why dogs follow their owners~
Love truly is a two-way journey.
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