We hypothesized that dogs that could see the hidden food in the mirror would be more likely to find the food than dogs that could not see the food through the mirror. Our results are consistent with this prediction and suggest that dogs are able to use a mirror to find hidden food, even with minimal prior exposure to the mirror. In the same environment, when dogs did not have access to the visual cues provided in the mirror, they were significantly less likely to find a hidden treat within a 3-minute period. This was not because of a pretest preference for one part of the room over another when comparing the experimental group and the control group nor was it because of a propensity to search for the food after the seeing the food in the mirror, as evidenced by the lack of difference in movement before finding the treat between groups. Therefore, it is probable that the dogs in the experimental group did indeed use the mirror to locate the food. The ability to use a mirror as a problem-solving tool has not previously been demonstrated in this species (but see Howell & Bennett 2011 for potential evidence of such a skill), and our results therefore add further information to the growing body of knowledge about the general problem-solving abilities of domestic dogs.
We hypothesized that dogs that could see the hidden food in the mirror would be more likely to find the food than dogs that could not see the food through the mirror. Our results are consistent with this prediction and suggest that dogs are able to use a mirror to find hidden food, even with minimal prior exposure to the mirror. In the same environment, when dogs did not have access to the visual cues provided in the mirror, they were significantly less likely to find a hidden treat within a 3-minute period. This was not because of a pretest preference for one part of the room over another when comparing the experimental group and the control group nor was it because of a propensity to search for the food after the seeing the food in the mirror, as evidenced by the lack of difference in movement before finding the treat between groups. Therefore, it is probable that the dogs in the experimental group did indeed use the mirror to locate the food. The ability to use a mirror as a problem-solving tool has not previously been demonstrated in this species (but see Howell & Bennett 2011 for potential evidence of such a skill), and our results therefore add further information to the growing body of knowledge about the general problem-solving abilities of domestic dogs.
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