A comparison of dog-dog and dog-human play behaviour

In the popular Literature, it is often assumed that a single conceptual fra mework can be applied to both dog-dog and dog-human interactions, including play. We have, through three studies, tested the hypothesis that dog-dog a nd dog-human play are motivationally distinct. In an observational study of dogs being walked by their owners (N = 402), dogs which were walked togeth er, and had opportunities to play with one another, played with their owner s with the same frequency as dogs being walked alone. This finding was supp orted by a questionnaire survey of 2585 dog owners in which dogs in multi-d og households played slightly more often with their owners than dogs in sin gle-dog households. The performance of dog-dog play does not, therefore, se em to suppress the dogs' motivation to play with their owners as would be p redicted if they were motivationally interchangeable. In an experimental co mparison of dog-dog and dog-human toy-centred play, the dogs were more like ly to give up on a competition, to show and present the toy to their play p artner, if that partner was human. When two toys were available, dogs playi ng with other dogs spent less time showing interest in both toys and posses sed one of the toys for longer, than dogs playing with people. Overall, the dogs were more interactive and less likely to possess the object when play ing with a person. We conclude that dog-dog and dog-human play are structur ally different, supporting the idea that they are motivationally distinct. We therefore suggest there is no reason to assume that the consequences of dog-dog play can be extrapolated to play with humans. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sci ence B.V. All rights reserved.