Abstract: Abstract  When apes are not fully understood by humans, they persist with attempts to communicate, elaborating their behaviours to better convey their meaning. Such abilities have never been investigated in dogs. The present study aimed to clarify any effect of the visual attentional state of the owner on dogs’ (Canis familiaris) social-communicative signals for interacting with humans, and to determine whether dogs persist and elaborate their behaviour in the face of failure to communicate a request. Gaze at a hidden target or at the owner, gaze alternation between a hidden target and the owner, vocalisations and contacts in 12 guide and 12 pet dogs were analysed (i) when the dogs were asked by their owners (blind or sighted) to fetch their inaccessible toy and (ii) when the dogs were subsequently given an unfamiliar object (apparent unsuccessful communication) or their toy (apparent successful communication). No group differences were found, indicating no effect of the visual status of the owner on the dogs’ socio-communicative modes (i.e. no sensitivity to human visual attention). Results, however, suggest that the dogs exhibited persistence (but not elaboration) in their “showing” behaviours in each condition, except that in which the toy was returned. Thus, their communication was about a specific item in space (the toy). The results suggest that dogs possess partially intentional non-verbal deictic abilities: (i) to get their inaccessible toy, the dogs gazed at their owners as if to trigger their attention; gaze alternation between the owner and the target direction, and two behaviours directed at the target were performed, apparently to indicate the location of the hidden toy; (ii) after the delivery of the toy, the dogs behaved as if they returned to the play routine, gazing at their owner whilst holding their toy. In conclusion, this study shows that dogs possess partially intentional non-verbal deictic abilities: they exhibit successive visual orienting between a partner and objects, apparent attention-getting behaviours, no sensitivity to the visual status of humans for communication, and persistence in (but no elaboration of) communicative behaviours when apparent attempts to “manipulate” the human partner fail.

Abstract: Idiosyncratic motor behaviour was investigated during four experimental procedures in 40 horses (males = 20, females = 20) to establish if horses revealed evidence of significant right or left laterality. The experimental procedures included (1) detection of the preferred foreleg to initiate movement (walk or trot), (2) obstacle avoidance within a passageway (right or left), (3) obstacle avoidance when ridden and (4) idiosyncratic motor bias when rolling. The influence of the horses' sex on both the direction and the degree of the laterality was explored within and between experimental procedures. The findings showed that the direction, but not the degree of idiosyncratic motor preference in the horses was strongly sex-related. Male horses exhibited significantly more (t = 3.74, d.f. = 79, P < 0.001) left lateralised responses and female horses exhibited significantly more (t = -6.35, d.f. = 79, P < 0.01) right lateralised responses. There was also significant positive correlation (P < 0.05) between four of six possible inter-experimental relationships. The results suggest two discrete trends of laterality associated with the sex of the horse. The primary cause of idiosyncratic motor laterality may be genetically predetermined, influenced by environmental factors or a combination of these two and the current findings may support the development of sex-specific training schedules for the horse. Further, work in this area might assist in defining the mechanisms of brain hemisphere lateralisation and allocation of cognitive function in the horse.

Abstract: Abstract Stress is a generic concept describing the body's reaction to external stimuli, including both physiological and psychological factors. Therefore, by definition, the assessment of psychological stress in the exercising horse encompasses the problem of teasing apart the psychological and physiological factors both of which result in stress responses. The present study reviews the existing literature on various measures of stress taken specifically in the context of equitation science. Particular attention has been paid to short-term effects, and commonly used measurements of short-term stress include heart rate, a number of heart rate variability parameters, blood or saliva cortisol levels, eye temperature, and various behaviour parameters including in particular behaviour patterns presumably indicative of conflict with the rider's/trainer's aids. Inspection of the individual studies' results revealed that disagreement between these different measures of stress is commonplace. For physiological parameters, the largest proportion of agreement (i.e. both parameters simultaneously indicated either higher, insignificant or lower stress compared to a control treatment) was found for heart rate and heart rate variability parameters, while generally limited agreement was found for cortisol. It appears that cortisol levels may not be particularly useful for assessing/assessment of the valence of a situation in the exercising horse as cortisol levels are predominantly linked to activation and exercise levels. Although heart rate variability parameters reflect in theory more closely sympathovagal balance compared to cortisol levels, great care has to be taken regarding the use of appropriate time-frames, appropriate raw data correction methods as well as the use of appropriate equipment. In spite of its wide-spread and apparently successful use, popular equipment may in fact not be accurate enough under field conditions. Eye temperature is another promising parameter for assessment of psychological stress, but the technique is likewise susceptible to application errors. Given the high susceptibility of physiological parameters to errors at various experimental stages, behavioural rather than physiological parameters may in fact provide more accurate measures of valence when conducting experiments in the exercising horse. Behavioural parameters that appear to be particularly practical in assessing stress in ridden horses' behaviour are associated with frequencies of behaviour indicative of conflict. However, while increased frequencies of are a good indicator of stress, the absence of conflict behaviour does not provide proof of the absence of stress due to the possible occurrence of conditions such as Learned Helplessness. In future studies, the above issues should be taken into consideration when designing experiments to assess psychological stress in ridden horses.

Abstract: The interaction of horses with humans is a dynamic state, but it is not clearly understood how horses perceive humans. Nervousness is transmissible from humans to horses indicated by increased horse heart rate (HR), however no studies have investigated whether horses can differentiate between humans who are physiologicallystressed (eg. after exercising) as opposed to psychologically-stressed (eg. feeling nervous/afraid). Horses (N=10) were randomly subjected to each of four treatments: 1) no human [control], 2) a calm human comfortable around horses [CALM; N=2 humans], 3) a physically-stressed human [PHYS; human exercised to reach 70% of maximum HR; N=2 humans], and 4) a psychologically-stressed human [PSYCH; human who was nervous around horses; N=14 humans]. Humans ranked themselves on a scale of 1-10 for their nervousness around horses. Both humans and horses were equipped with a HR monitor. Behavioural observations of the horses [gait, head position relative to the withers, distance from human, orientation toward human] were recorded live. Horses were allowed to wander loose in a round pen for 5 minutes of baseline recordings, at which time the human subject entered the round pen, stood in the centre and placed a blindfold over his/her eyes. The human remained in the centre of the round pen for an additional 5 minutes. Horse HR during control did not differ from when the human was present in the CALM and PSYCH treatment, and was lower during the PHYS treatment (51a vs 54a vs 55a vs 45b bpm for control, CALM, PSYCH and PHYS respectively; a,b differ p<0.0001). Over the 5 minute test period, horse HR decreased in PHYS and PSYCH (p<0.01) whereas it increased in CALM (p<0.0001). Horse HR decreased with increasing human rank of nervousness around horses (p=0.0156), and horses stood nearer to the human when they faced the human (p<0.0001) regardless of treatment. Horses moved at a faster gait in the control treatment, and their gait was slowest in the PSYCH treatment (p<0.0001), and the horse’s head position was lower in the PHYS and PSYCH treatments compared to CALM or baseline (p< 0.0001). A lower horse head position was positively correlated to a lower horse HR (p<0.0001) and negatively correlated to horse age (p<0.0001). Human HR was affected by treatment, with PHYS having the highest HR (p<0.0001). Human HR increased when the horse was facing away from the human, even though the human was blindfolded (p=0.0395). Overall, horses appear to be influenced by the physiological and psychological state of a human without any direct contact. Horses’ posture does reflect their physiological state. Understanding how horses react to human physiological and psychological states is especially important in equine-assisted activities, where the response of the horse has specific implications for the human participant.

Abstract: Behavioural innovations have become central to our thinking about how animals adjust to changing environments. It is now well established that animals vary in their ability to innovate, but understanding why remains a challenge. This is because innovations are rare, so studying innovation requires alternative experimental assays that create opportunities for animals to express their ability to invent new behaviours, or use pre-existing ones in new contexts. Problem solving of extractive foraging tasks has been put forward as a suitable experimental assay. We review the rapidly expanding literature on problem solving of extractive foraging tasks in order to better understand to what extent the processes underpinning problem solving, and the factors influencing problem solving, are in line with those predicted, and found, to underpin and influence innovation in the wild. Our aim is to determine whether problem solving can be used as an experimental proxy of innovation. We find that in most respects, problem solving is determined by the same underpinning mechanisms, and is influenced by the same factors, as those predicted to underpin, and to influence, innovation. We conclude that problem solving is a valid experimental assay for studying innovation, propose a conceptual model of problem solving in which motor diversity plays a more central role than has been considered to date, and provide recommendations for future research using problem solving to investigate innovation. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Cognition in the wild.