The Social Dog

Dr. Juliane Kaminski is an Associate Professor in Comparative Psychology and director of the dog cognition centre at the University of Portsmouth. Before that she was the group leader of the research group “Evolutionary Roots of Human Social Interaction” at the Max Planck Institute for evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig/ Germany where she also completed her PhD in 2005. Her research focuses on the social cognition of different animal species including dogs and chimpanzees. Dr. Sarah Marshall-Pescini is a senior scientist in the Domestication Lab, Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, of the Veterinary Medicine University of Vienna. Her main research specialisation is the behaviour and cognition of wolves and dogs in a comparative framework, with a particular attention to the domestication process. She has worked with pets and working dogs, dogs and wolves similarly raised in a captive pack setting (at the Wolf Science Centre), free-ranging dogs and more recently wolves in the wild. She is currently a PI on two international projects looking at the effects of urbanization and domestication on wolves and free-ranging dogs, and Co-PI on two other projects, one of which focuses on the human attitudes and interactions with wolves and dogs.

"... an excellent job distilling a vast amount of information into a highly readable synopsis that will appeal to students and general readers alike... Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries." --Choice Reviews Online, January 2015"...an outstanding review of the scientific literature and current research regarding canine cognition and social behavior...an intelligent read and likely requires a strong scientific background for full comprehension." --Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, December 2014"...provides a much-needed overview of...the role that research on dogs is playing in increasing our understanding of behavior and cognition more broadly...an excellent resource for researchers...as well as for trainers or veterinarians..." --The Quarterly Review of Biology

• 1. Introduction: Why dogsJuliane Kaminski and Sarah Marshall-Pescini2. Social cognition: The dog-wolf comparison.Friederike Range and Zsofi Viranyi3. The social organization of a population of free-ranging dogs in a suburban area of Rome: A reassessment of the effects of domestication on dogs’ behaviorRoberto Bonanni and Simona Cafazzo4. Social behavior among companion dogs with an emphasis on playBarbara Smuts5. Auditory communication in domestic dogs: Vocal signalling in the extended social environment of a companion animalAnna Magdalena Taylor, Victoria Frances Ratcliffe, Karen McComb, David Reby6. The immaterial cord: The dog-human attachment bondEmanuela Prato Previde and Paola Valsecchi7. The personality of dogsÁdám Miklósi, Borbála Turcsán, Enikő Kubinyi8. When the bond goes wrong: Problem behaviours in the social contextDaniel Mills, Emile van der Zee, and Helen Zulch9. Social learning in dogsPéter Pongrácz10. What dogs understand about humansJuliane Bräuer11. Dogs’ sensitivity to human ostensive cues: A unique adaptation?Topál József, Kis Anna, Oláh Katalin12. Do dogs show an optimistic or pessimistic attitude to life? A review of studies using the ‘cognitive bias’ paradigmOliver Burman13. Wagging to the right or to the left: Lateralization and what it tells of the dog’s social brainMarcello Siniscalchi and Angelo Quaranta