What animals can be trained to look at where a finger is pointing rather than the finger?

[Broomstick]

@Reply

I can’t remember where I read this, but I believe ravens can be trained to follow human gestures as well. The cites I did find say they point for each other using their beaks, and can be trained to follow the gazes of human surrogate parents.

My parrots point with their beaks and can follow my gaze. I don’t think they get the concept of finger pointing, but then, I don’t claim to be an awesome animal trainer. I sometimes think my current conure is a better human trainer than I am a bird trainer.

[Gatopescado]

I’ve never given this a second of thought, but The Crew go where I point. Never ‘trained’ them except for parlour tricks. They also respond to whistle and come running. It was as easy as procuring a whistle. They just know. Seems obvious to me, however. They hear a loud noise from where I’m standing, they come.

Ted taught me how to text. Smart dogs.

[Squink]

Cats eventually learn to look to your finger, instead of the laser spot.

[Aspenglow]

@Gatopescado

I’ve never given this a second of thought, but The Crew go where I point. Never ‘trained’ them except for parlour tricks. They also respond to whistle and come running. It was as easy as procuring a whistle. They just know. Seems obvious to me, however. They hear a loud noise from where I’m standing, they come.

Ted taught me how to text. Smart dogs.

Must be a dachshund thing. Mine will go where I point, too. It started when he would leave his designated area to go Hoover around the kitchen floor. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be off his “mat” without permission. So I would wordlessly point, and he would return to his spot.

Now it works in other situations, too. At bedtime if he’s in my spot on the bed, I just point where I want him to move to, and off he goes. If we’re outside and I notice he’s lost track of a toy, I can simply point in the direction where it is and he will go retrieve it.

Very smart indeed, those dachshunds.

[Reply]

@QuarkChild

I recently read a book about this:
Genius of Dogs
The author traveled to Siberia to do behavior experiments on domesticated silver foxes. The foxes were selectively bred based on only one trait: how readily would they approach humans. The author wanted to know if domesticated fox kits would understand pointing with no training, the way most puppies do. They did, even though they’d had no prior contact with humans (other than feeding and cage maintenance, same as the control group). He also tested the “control” kits - fox kits who had not been bred to approach humans and were presumably identical to their wild ancestors. The wild foxes did not understand pointing. (The experiments had to be done carefully to ensure that the wild foxes would not be at a disadvantage due to their fear of humans - they were first conditioned to not be afraid of the experimental set-up.)

It would appear that breeding animals to be comfortable around humans (ie, domestication) introduces this ability.

The author also tested bonobos in Africa; I believe he found that bonobos are better than chimps at understanding pointing.

How do people like the author get paid to fly around the world wagging their finger at random things in front of animals?

[carrps]

@Aspenglow

Must be a dachshund thing. Mine will go where I point, too. It started when he would leave his designated area to go Hoover around the kitchen floor. He knew he wasn’t supposed to be off his “mat” without permission. So I would wordlessly point, and he would return to his spot.

Now it works in other situations, too. At bedtime if he’s in my spot on the bed, I just point where I want him to move to, and off he goes. If we’re outside and I notice he’s lost track of a toy, I can simply point in the direction where it is and he will go retrieve it.

Very smart indeed, those dachshunds.

We’ve always had dachshunds, and they were never overtly trained to follow finger pointing, but they all could do it. Our old boy, Luc, is going blind now, so I have to tap my foot to indicate food on the floor. But when he still could see, he would indicate to us that he wanted a treat by crawling up in our face if we were sitting on the couch, getting us to look him in the eyes, then looking quickly at the treat jar and back into our eyes again.

Dachshunds *are *smart.

[Mcmechanic]

If my overweight corgi/beagle/mutt doesn’t look where I point for a treat,I’m pretty sure he’s training me to just give him the treat without all the fanfare, lol. (Sorry for the troll post, but I really think he’s got me figured out)

[TruCelt]

@Aspenglow

Must be a dachshund thing. Mine will go where I point, too.
. . .
Very smart indeed, those dachshunds.

You’ve got me curious. Would you be willing to try just looking where you want him to go without the hand gesture, and see if he does it? report back?

[TruCelt]

@TruCelt

You’ve got me curious. Would you be willing to try just looking where you want him to go without the hand gesture, and see if he does it? report back?

Of course that won’t prove that he does or doesn’t understand the pointing, only whether or not the gesture is necessary. But I’m still curious.