Comparing interspecific socio-communicative skills of socialized juvenile dogs and miniature pigs

Previous research proves dogs’ outstanding success in socio-communicative interactions with humans; however, little is known about other domestic species’ interspecific skills when kept as companion animals. Our aim was to assess highly socialized young miniature pigs’ spontaneous reactions in interactions with humans in direct comparison with that of young family dogs. All subjects experienced similar amount of socialization in human families. In Study 1, we investigated the appearance of human-oriented behaviours without the presence of food (Control condition) when a previously provided food reward was withheld (Food condition). In Study 2, we measured responsiveness to two types of the distal pointing gesture (dynamic sustained and momentary) in a two-way object choice test. In the Control condition of Study 1, the duration of pigs’ and dogs’ orientation towards and their frequency of touching the human’s body was similar. In the Food condition, these behaviours and orienting to the human’s face were intensified in both species. However, pigs exhibited face-orientation to an overall lesser extent and almost exclusively in the Food condition. In Study 2, only dogs relied spontaneously on the distal dynamic-sustained pointing gesture, while all pigs developed side bias. The results suggest that individual familiarization to a human environment enables the spontaneous appearance of similar socio-communicative behaviours in dogs and pigs, however, species predispositions might cause differences in the display of specific signals as well as in the success of spontaneously responding to certain types of the human pointing gestures. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s10071-019-01284-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.