Dogs 'too reliant on humans to think for themselves'

Pet dogs are so reliant on humans that they have lost the ability to think for themselves, a study has shown.Researchers believe that years of domestication have robbed the animals of the problem solving skills they once had in the wild.Pet dogs failed basic intelligence tests that wolves and wild dogs passed with ease but proved more adept at social interaction, according to the research.Dr Bradley Smith, the psychologist who led the study, said: "Wolves will outperform dogs on any problem-solving tasks that are non-social."Often feral dogs survive by taking advantage of human leftovers - perhaps scrounged or from rubbish - or domestic livestock."It would take a lot of generations of successful dogs to start fostering any such cognitive abilities required for survival in the wild."Dr Smith, of the School of Psychology at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, put domesticated dogs, wolves and dingoes through a problem-solving test.Dingoes are domestic dogs that have adapted to life in the Australian outback over many generations.Researchers placed a bowl of food behind a fence. To reach it the animals had to work their way along the fence away from the food to pass through a swinging door and then double back on themselves.

via Dogs 'too reliant on humans to think for themselves' - Telegraph.