The Role of Ontogeny in the Development of Social Behavior within the Domestic Dog - Literature review Example

Word count: 3015 Order # 403772 d 23rd February The role of ontogeny in the development of social behaviour within the domestic dog Introduction The origin and development of an individual from embryo to adult is known as ontogenesis. It also deals with the life cycle and entire sequence of events that occur in an organism. The study of an ontogeny in any organism gives us an idea about its ancestral connection and its similarities with the other organisms and hence it helps in broader understanding of behavioural aspects. The scientific name of the domestic dog is Canis lupis familiaris and it plays a significant role in human society. It helps people in reaching safely to multiple destinations and police investigations. Dogs are also used in de-mining and termite control operations. For any organism, the understanding of the developmental stages from embryo to the adult would be of great importance as it helps us in having awareness about its basic features and it also helps in successful management. The same principle applies to the domestic dogs and there is an urgent need to study the ontogeny of the domestic dogs so that the desirable behaviour can be enhanced and undesirable attributes can be regulated effectively. The influence of events that occur during initial developmental stages of dog is quite phenomenal on the adult behaviour. Hence in successful management of adult dogs, the study and analysis of ontogeny plays crucial role. Several researchers studied the implications of ontogeny on the adult behaviour of the dog. There were some meaningful investigations conducted on the effect of phylogenetic factors on the dog’s social behaviour and the studies were also performed on the inter relationship of the dog’s sensitivity with that of the human attentiveness. Hence there is a need to systematically review the existing literature for drawing meaningful conclusions. The literature has been reviewed from various research journals to systematically draw the conclusions related to the ontogeny and effect of genetic and environmental factors on the social behaviour of the domestic dogs. The relationship between the evolutionary history and the behaviour of the domesticated dog The correlation between the behavior of dogs and the early history of comparative psychology was established since several decades. According to the majority theories of the biologists, the evolution of dog behavior can be traced to the mechanisms of evolutionary change from the antecedent wolf behavior. It was found that the dog behavior can be very much delineated and that it exhibits significant variation among dogs. The behaviour of the dogs may be influenced considerably by the environmental or external factors. It was supported by the view that the dogs of all breeds have the same karyotype which represents the num­ber and shape of chromosomes. Hence, the differences among breeds are not only due to gene differences but also due to phenotypic differences. Pheno­typic and behavioral differences among dog breeds are found to be due to slight allelic differences in gene products in three categories i.e. ontogenetic onset, quantity of gene product and ontogenetic offset. The ontogenetic onset represents the tim­ing of the activation of the gene and ontogenetic offset implies the timing of deactiva­tion of the gene. However, the origin of some of these variations is mainly assumed to be genetic i.e. the genotype or the specific arrangements of genes. It was also established that the dogs were the first animals to be domesticated and they have shared a common environment with human beings for last 10000 years (Udell and Wynne, 2007). Recent scientific inquiries suggested that the human cognitive psychology has similarity with that of the dogs in many ways. Charles Darwin made some interesting observations about the dog behavior intelligence and emotions after testing his own dogs (Darwin, 1871). He confirmed that dogs exhibited emotions such as love, imitating and reasoning ability, fear, shame, and rage, and dreams. Moreover, Darwin also interpreted the evolution of various types of barks over a period of time and stated that the domestication of dogs reduced their fear of human beings and change in their behavior. However, Charles Darwin gave more importance to the natural selection theory in which the organisms follow the principles of struggle for existence and survival of the fittest. The dog has successfully survived in the severe competition that operated in several points of the time period according to this theory. Sir John Lubbock conducted experiments on dog intelligence and communication behavior (Lubbock, 1889). He concluded that the observation of skills of the dogs is quite impressive and they have significant communication mechanism for food preference. When the dogs were subjected to different foods which were labeled and the dogs preferred maximum times the food which they like and they didn’t show preference to the foods which they disliked. This suggested that the observation skills of the domestic dogs are quite impressive and significant. The relation of the ontogeny and the observation skills may be accepted, but the impact of human interference or training has more significant effect on the behavior and observation skills of the dog. Ivan Pavlov also conducted studies on dog’ attributes such as its sensitivity to touch, temperature, scent and musical tones (Pavlov, 1966). In several circumstances or situations, the similarities of the dogs like that of the features of wolves and other mammals. For example, the care-soliciting calls of pups are not only restricted to the individual species and it has identity with the genus, family and order level. More specifically, the wolf cubs and dog puppies exhibit the same set of care-soliciting calls. This particular trend reveals that the ancestors of dogs and wolves had the similar set of modulating tonal signals. In other words, it can also be stated that the care-soliciting calls of puppies and cubs are phylogenetically related and are also homolo­gous. This also confirms the earlier finding that the inheritance pattern of the dog was originated from the ancestors of the wolf. Delineate the ontogeny of behaviour in the dog and identify the specific periods of development that determine adult behaviour patterns. Several researchers initiated research studies on the ontogeny of the dog and identified several developmental stages. Pal (2009) studied the early ontogeny of certain processes like eye opening and for six bitches and their offspring in the natural environment. He also studied the ontogeny of other processes like locomotion, nipple preference, play and sexual activities. The results revealed that out of 35 survived at the age of 3 months exhibited 63% mortality. The eye slits were observed on 12th day of life, and the eyes completely opened on 17th day of life. The rearmost (fourth) nipple pair was suckled by the puppies which reflected their no sex bias. It was also found that the social communication among the littermates was correlated with playful interactions. Three types of play behavior i.e. social play, agonistic play, and pseudo-sexual activity was found in three subsequent stages at 3, 5 and 6 weeks, respectively. It was also observed that the playful interactions enhanced with the age of the puppies, but has shown a sudden decrease between 8 and 10 weeks of life. It was also found that the range of aggression varied between the male and female dogs. The male puppies developed pseudo-sexual behavior by the age of 6 weeks. The mobility of the puppies at the age of 3 weeks was correlated with the opening of eyes and the dogs attained full mobility at the age of 10-11 weeks during which the dogs travel extensively for the food collection. Though domestic dogs exhibit some similarities with fox and wolf, the behavioral aspects of social canid differed from the moderately social crab-eating fox and maned wolf (Biben, 1983). The ontogeny of time allocation was studied in a field population of black-tailed prairie dogs, Cynomys ludovicianus (Loughry, 1992) which suggested that the pups first emerged from their natal burrows during late summer. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of ontogeny revealed considerable age differences. During the first emergence, pups spent most of their time vigilant and feeding was observed for little time. The trend was found to be reverse with the increase in age of pups as the time spent on feeding increases and time vigilant decreases. The behavioral aspects among the male and female dogs exhibited high similarity. Similarly, the pup exhibited difference with that of adults in terms of time allocation patterns and these differences got narrowed down with the increase in age of pups. As mentioned earlier, the pups were basically more vigilant and fed less compared to adults in initial stages and the trend became reverse during summer. The researchers made several investigations on dog cognition in the recent years (Miklosi et al., 2004). Bloom (2004) suggested the link between the human beings and dogs in the historical development, social learning including stimulus enhancement, local enhancement, and emulation and true imitation. No doubt, dogs might be accepted as the first animals to be domesticated by the human beings and hence they shared a common environment with humans for over ten thousand years. The research studies suggested that in many ways dogs are more human-like than any other species, including nonhuman primates. Evaluate genetic and environmental influences on the social behaviour of the dog One can find the similarity of the morphological structure of certain groups of wolves with the modern domestic dog. DNA evidence indicated that the domestic dogs are most likely diverged from wolves which can be traced back to 135,000 years ago (Vila et al., 1997). However, Morey (2006) suggested that it is an over estimation and the dog burial studies indicated that the domestic dog is of 14000 years old (Nobis, 1979). Its earlier domestication period was confirmed through the well-preserved lower jaw and teeth and hence it can be treated as the oldest known domesticated animal and a companion of the Cro-Magnon Man in the late Paleolithic age. The main causes of the social behavior of dogs might be attributed to the phylogenetic and ontogenetic factors. The phylogenetic influences on behavior of the dog would be resulted by the unique evolutionary history of domestic dogs. Similarly, the ontogenetic causes represent the history of contingencies of reinforcement experienced by the domestic dog within human society during its lifetime. The artificial selection makes dogs more ready for the situation than natural selection. It helps in acquiring the desirable traits and social behavior (Hare & Tomasello, 2005) in dogs upon the systematic guidance. This reveals that the impact of environment is quite significant on the social behavior of the domestic dogs (Hare & Tomasello, 2005). Skinner (1986) reported the influence of social stimulus on behavior of the domestic dogs. The recognition ability of the dogs towards the human gestures is quite significant and phenomenal compared to any other non human animal (Brauer et al., 2006). Adler and Adler (1977) conducted investigations using split-litter technique for testing observational learning in 4 litters of Miniature Dachshund puppies i.e. 21, 28, 38, and 60 days old. The observation skills and the maturation traits were found to be significantly affected and it was reflected through the saving in time for the 1st trial when the observer was given the similar problem to solve. Maturation and the development of visual function and motor coordination have profound influence on the observational learning of dogs. Dogs also exhibited sensitiveness to the attentional state of humans which in turn had an impact on their behavior under different situations. In cases where the carer doesn’t have direct view of the food, the domestic dogs prefer to take the food and in other situations where the observer has clear view on the food, the dogs prefer to wait for the ready command of the carer. However, in cases where the dogs were instructed not to take the food, the dogs may disobey the carer’s command in his absence (Call et al., 2003). Although dogs, Canis familiaris, are skilful at responding to human social cues, the importance of ontogeny in the development of these abilities has not been systematically examined (Riedel et al., 2008). The ability of very young dog puppies to follow human communicative cues and successfully find hidden food was investigated. The results revealed that puppies, irrespective of age, used all major human communicative cues and their ability to communicate or follow communication increased with increase in age. The flexibility of the puppies understanding by reducing the degree to which they could use local enhancement was also investigated. Six-week-old puppies readily used all of the human communicative cues provided. The results clearly revealed and supported the hypothesis that domestication played a critical role in shaping the ability of dogs to follow human-given cues. Scott (1970) and Fox (1955) also confirmed the significant effect of environmental factors on the behavioral variation among dogs. They investigated on the way in which the puppies exhibit a critical period of socialization when they are between 3 and 16 weeks of age which was correlated with the environmental stimuli. Cairns and Johnson (1965) revealed that the aggression rate of dogs get reduced when the element of social con­ditioning with another species operates due to the fact that the dogs feel social attachment with the other species. There were even cases where dog exhibited social attachment with sheep. Conclusion Ontogenesis deals with the origin of development of an individual from embryo to adult and it explains the life cycle and entire sequence of events occur in an organism. The study of an ontogeny gives us an idea about its ancestral connection and phylogeny and its similarities with the other organisms and hence it helps in broader understanding of behavioral aspects of different organisms. It was found that the influence of events that occur during initial developmental stages of dog is quite phenomenal on the adult behaviour. Though the genetic effects on the behaviour of the dogs is quite significant, the effect of the external environment on the observation skills of the dogs is quite superior which gives us ample scope in managing them quite effectively in different functional environments. Similarly, the artificial selection played crucial role in deciding the behavioral traits of the dogs compared to the natural selection. Overall, the ontogenetic and phylogenetic factors have significant role in behavioural changes in the various developmental stages of the dogs. It was also reported that the feeding time was very low and the time vigilant was higher in the initial developmental stages where as the trend was reverse in later growth stages. Some investigations suggested the effect of phylogenetic factors on the dog’s social behaviour and the inter relationship of the dog’s sensitivity with that of the human attentiveness was also confirmed. Therefore, the study and analysis of ontogeny plays crucial role in successful management of adult dog. The research studies confirmed the implications of ontogeny on the adult behaviour of the dog. References Adler, L.L. & Adler, H.E., 1977. Ontogeny of observational learning in the dog (Canis familiaris). Dev Psychobiol. 10 (3): 267-271. Biben, M., 1983. Comparative ontogeny of social behaviour in three South American canids, the maned wolf, crab-eating fox and bush dog: Implications for sociality. Animal Behavior. 31 (3). 814-826. Brauer, J., Kaminski, J., Riedel, J., Call, J., & Tomasello, M., 200). Making inferences about the location of hidden food: Social dog, causal ape. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 120, 38–47. Cairns, R.B. and Johnson, D.L., 1965. The development of interspecies social attachments. Psychonometrk Sci. 2:337-338. Call, J., Brauer, J., Kaminski, J. and Tomasello, M., 2003. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) are sensitive to the attentional states of humans. 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