Social modulation of dogs' behavioural synchronization with humans: effect of number of people and owner's presence

Abstract

Dogs' behavioural synchronization with humans is well established, but few studies have examined its social modulation. We investigated whether the number of human agents modulates interspecific behavioural synchronization. We replicated the protocol of Lamontagne et al. (2023, Animal Cognition, 26, 1021–1034), comparing dogs' locomotor synchronization in two experimental groups, either with their owner alone or with the owner and four other people, during a straight-line walking task and using GPS devices. Our results are consistent with those of the previous study and show no significant difference between the two experimental groups. Specifically, dogs stayed at an average distance of 5 m from their owner, they adjusted their speed to that of the humans' speed and they adapted their speed within about 2 s when the humans changed speed. To further explore the effect of the number of humans on dogs' behavioural alignment, the five-person group separated at the end of the straight-line walk, with the owner going one way and the rest of the group the other. Fifteen of 20 dogs followed the group after the separation and then went to their owner afterwards. We suggest that the number of agents modulated dogs’ behavioural synchronization with humans, as dogs followed the group of humans, but this group effect was masked during the straight-line walk by another social modulator, namely the attracting effect of the owner due to the affiliation between the dogs and their owners.