Likewise, dogs kept indoors and those kept away from humans outside reacted with the same skills in understanding human pointing gestures. However, the wolves of Wolf Hollow did not perform well in the test. Further research concluded that wolves could not spontaneously use human gestures to find the location of hidden food items, yet, like chimpanzees, they could learn to use human communicative cues with proper training.
Bonobos are less aggressive and more peaceful, are more slender, have smaller canine teeth, and smaller skull sizes than chimpanzees. This relates to dogs because as they developed to better fit into society and were bred for different reasons, they began to take on different psychological and physical features, as the bonobos did.
Dogs do not perform exceptionally well on detour tests, as they tend to search for the entrance they originally used when encountering a barrier, despite realizing that there was a new opening and the old was no longer in existence. Likewise, dogs initially perform poorly in maze tests, and struggle to exit in a timely fashion, however, with practice, they are able to improve their times …show more content…
Historically, however, breeds were classified by their function. Therefore, any dog willing to perform a certain task would be characterized by the same name. For example, the author states that any dog willing to fight a bull would be called a bulldog, and over time they developed a specific appearance as a result of mating with other bulldogs.
There are two major groups of dog breeds, one is more ancient and genetically similar to wolves. The second consists of the majority of modern breeds which are known as dogs of European origin. These groups were created based on the genetic relationships between the modern breeds of dogs, and as a result scientists were able to place different breeds in the corresponding group.
Dogs can vary in appearance but remain genetically similar because only a small number of genes are responsible for changing morphological traits. For instance, most of the coat types in dogs are affected by only a three genes. It is so difficult to isolate the genes associated with behavior because most traits are not controlled by a single gene and are controlled by entire families of genes. Furthermore, it would require comparisons between a minimum of thirty dogs from each breed raised in similar environments in order to understand breed