Companion Cats Show No Effect of Trial-and-Error Learning Compared to Dogs in a Transparent-Obstacle Detour Task

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Although both companion dogs and companion cats are increasingly popular subjects in cognitive behavioral sciences, there is a relative lack of such experiments where their performance is directly compared in the same problem-solving task. In this research, we tested privately owned cats and similar-sized (‘cat-sized’) companion dogs in the well-known detour task. Cats and dogs had to negotiate a V-shaped transparent mesh fence if they wanted to reach the reward placed in the fence’s inner corner. We found that dogs mastered the task faster than cats did, and dogs tended to run along the same side of the fence where they had previous success. Cats, on the other hand, often switched sides. We argue that for dogs, a detour is a harder task than for cats; therefore, it is more important for dogs to learn from their previous successful experiences than it is for cats. Another difference was observed between the two species’ behavior, as the dogs glanced more frequently towards their owner than the cats did during the task. This might indicate that either the task was harder for dogs (thus eliciting more ‘social referencing’) or cats are less dependent on humans than dogs are. ABSTRACT: We tested companion cats and dogs in similar indoor conditions using identical procedures in the classic detour task around a V-shaped transparent wire-mesh fence. Besides the control group, we used two types of laser light-pointing demonstration (moving around the fence, or pointing straight at the reward). We found that dogs reached the food reward faster than cats; across consecutive trials, only the dogs showed improvement in their speed and dogs continued to use the same side for detouring after a preceding successful attempt, while cats chose the side for detouring irrespective of their previous successful trials. In addition, ‘demonstrating’ a detour with the laser did not influence the speed or direction of the detour of the subjects; and dogs looked back to their owner more frequently than the cats did. We discuss the possibility that for dogs, detouring along a transparent obstacle represents a more problematic task than for cats; therefore, dogs strongly rely on their previous experiences. This is the first time that cats were successfully tested in this detour paradigm in direct comparison with dogs. The results are relevant from the aspect of testing cognitive performance in companion cats, which are known to be notoriously reluctant to engage with novel experimental situations.