Rescue behavior is considered a type of pro-social response, defined as a voluntary action directed to benefit another individual who is in a stressful or dangerous situation. In two experiments, we investigated whether dogs would rescue their owners when the person was trapped inside a wooden box and emitted clear signs of stress. The performance of these dogs was compared against that of a control group in which the owners remained calm while trapped. In addition, to assess if training modulated this behavior, we tested a group of dogs from the military trained in search and rescue tasks (Experiment 1). Results showed that dogs opened the box more frequently when the owner pretended to be stressed than when calm. Training shortened latencies to open the door but not the frequency of the behavior. In Experiment 2, we investigated if emotional contagion could be a possible mechanism underlying dogs' rescue responses by measuring dogs’ behavior, heart rate, and saliva cortisol level in the stressed and calm conditions, and also controlled for obedience by having the calm owners call their pets while trapped. We replicated the findings of Experiment 1 as more dogs opened the door in the stressed owner condition than in the calm condition. In addition, we observed an increase in heart rate across trials in the stressed condition and a decrease across trials in the calm condition, but no differences in cortisol levels or stress-related behaviors between conditions. In brief, we found evidence that approximately half of the dogs without previous training showed spontaneous rescue behaviors directed to their owners. Neither was this behavior motivated by obedience nor by the motivation to re-establish social contact with the owner. We conclude that emotional contagion is a plausible mechanism underlying dogs’ rescue behavior in the present protocol.

中文翻译：

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狗能从压力中解救主人吗？行为和生理评估

营救行为被认为是亲社会反应的一种，定义为旨在使处于压力或危险境地的另一个人受益的自愿行动。在两个实验中，我们调查了当狗被困在木箱中并发出明显的压力迹象时，狗是否会救出主人。将这些狗的表现与对照组进行比较，在对照组中主人被困时保持镇定。此外，为了评估训练是否调节了这种行为，我们测试了一组接受过搜救任务训练的军方的狗（实验1）。结果表明，狗主人假装承受压力时比经常镇静时更频繁地打开箱子。培训缩短了打开门的等待时间，但没有缩短行为的频率。在实验2中，我们通过在压力和平静的条件下测量狗的行为，心率和唾液皮质醇水平来调查情绪传染是否可能是狗的抢救反应的潜在机制，并通过让平静的主人在被困时称呼他们的宠物来控制服从行为。我们重复了实验1的发现，因为在压力主人状态下的狗比在平静状态下的狗开的门更多。此外，我们观察到在压力条件下的所有试验中心率均升高，而在平静条件下的所有试验中心率均降低，但两种条件下皮质醇水平或与压力相关的行为均无差异。简而言之，我们发现有证据表明，大约一半未经训练的狗表现出针对其主人的自发抢救行为。这种行为既不是出于服从的动机，也不是与所有者重新建立社会联系的动机。我们得出结论，情绪传染是本协议中狗的抢救行为的合理机制。