NEW DATA ON THE EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY OF THE OLFACTORY CUES IN THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN THE CHILD AND THE PET DOG

Different experimental methods are set up to specify the importance of the olfactory cues in the interaction systems between the young child and his pet dog. A realistic child dummy, with an affiliative or an a gonistic posture, is wearing clothes of a child who is known or unknow n from the animals. The study is dealt in kennels (N degrees of dogs o bserved: 68) and allows to define and quantify the behaviours of the d ogs in response to different combinations of visual and olfactory info rmations. These behaviours allow to discuss the socio-cognitive abilit ies of the dogs and their relational strategies determined by the inte gration of several functional cues.