Dogs have been claimed to engage in social referencing by responding in a way that corresponded with their owners' reaction in some contexts. We aimed to assess how owners’ actions affect family dogs’ behaviour in two ambiguous lifelike situations. In Experiment 1, two groups were tested; in the suspicious owner (SO) group, owners behaved suspiciously (N = 25), in the reassuring owner (RO) group, owners behaved in a reassuring manner (N = 28) facing a ‘threatening stranger’. The sitting owners provided voice intonation and body posture changes as cues for the dogs when the stranger entered the room. Dogs looked longer at the owners and stayed longer near them in the SO group but their tendency to approach the stranger did not differ between the groups. Although the owners’ behaviours seemed to have relevant effects on dogs’ responses, we note that these looking and proximity seeking behaviours might also be explained by reactions to the owners’ behaviour alone. In Experiment 2, all dogs (N = 19) were tested in both the SO and RO conditions in a slightly different procedure. Depending on the condition, owners took one step forward/backward and spoke happily/worryingly. The procedural differences and the larger distance between the stranger and the owner allowed the dog more time to perceive the behaviour of both the stranger and the owner, which made the distinction between alternative explanations for the dogs’ behaviour easier to interpret. Dogs spent more time behind their owners in the SO condition and more dogs approached the stranger in the RO condition. Dogs’ avoidance of the stranger when the owner behaved suspiciously and their tendency to approach the stranger only when the owner displayed positive emotions, can be best explained by social referencing.

中文翻译：

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当遇到可疑的陌生人时，运动和声音语调共同引起伴侣犬的社交参照。

据称，在某些情况下，狗会以与主人的反应相对应的方式做出反应，从而进行社交推荐。我们旨在评估主人的行为如何在两种模棱两可的栩栩如生的情况下影响家犬的行为。在实验1中，测试了两组。在可疑所有者（SO）组中，所有者的行为可疑（N  = 25）；在令人放心的所有者（RO）组中，所有者的行为令人放心（N = 28）面对“威胁性的陌生人”。当陌生人进入房间时，坐着的主人提供声音调和身体姿势变化作为狗的线索。在SO组中，狗对着主人看的时间更长，并且在主人附近呆了更长的时间，但是它们接近陌生人的倾向在两组之间没有差异。尽管主人的行为似乎对狗的反应有相关影响，但我们注意到，这些寻找和接近狗的行为也可能仅通过对主人行为的反应来解释。在实验2中，所有的狗（N = 19）在SO和RO条件下均以略有不同的程序进行了测试。视情况而定，所有者向前/向后迈出了一步，并愉快地/令人担忧地讲话。程序上的差异以及陌生人和主人之间更大的距离，使狗有更多的时间来感知陌生人和主人的行为，这使得对狗的行为的替代解释之间的区别更易于解释。在SO状态下，狗比在主人身上花费更多的时间，而在RO条件下，更多的狗接近陌生人。当主人表现出可疑行为时，狗会躲避陌生人，只有当主人表现出积极的情绪时，狗才会趋向陌生人，这可以通过社会参照来最好地解释。