Exploring breed differences in discrimination, reversal learning, and resistance to extinction in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris)

Learning is crucial for shaping domestic dogs' behaviour through life experiences, yet not all breeds exhibit the same learning aptitude towards a particular task. The current study's objective was to identify differences in behaviour and learning performance across and within five breed clades and elucidate the underlying factors contributing into these variations. Dogs (n = 111) from five breed clades (UK Rural, Retrievers, Asian Spitz, European Mastiff, and New World) participated in a virtual learning task with their owners. Owners completed validated questionnaires of Impulsivity and Reward Responsiveness. The learning task comprised of reinforcing an arbitrary behaviour (hand-touch) through multiple sessions of Acquisition (reinforcing the hand-touch), Discrimination (reinforcing the hand-touch on one of two hands) and Reversal Learning (reinforcing the hand-touch on the opposite hand), followed by a single session of Extinction (hand-touch not reinforced). Results showed notable differences across the studied breed clades in certain learning and behavioural components. However, the observed disparities may not be entirely attributed to inherent cognitive differences among the breed clades but rather potentially influenced by contextual factors such as the human-dog communication dynamics associated with breeds' cooperativity. Furthermore, breed clades differed in the contributing factors predicting individual learning performances, which could highlight the potential effect of breeds' historical function.