Dog as a model for studying conspecific and heterospecific social learning

In human communities social learning (i.e., learning by the observation of knowledgeable individuals) plays an important role; it shapes Cultures, traditions, and cognition. Dogs seem to be an ideal system for modeling human cognition from the social learning aspect. The present review offers a short overview oil the relevant general theories of social learning, discusses the adaptive value of social learning, introduces dog as a model system, presents evidence for different forms of social learning in dogs and argues for practical implications that social learning might have in this species. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.