AUTHOR=Barrera Gabriela , Dzik Victoria , Cavalli Camila , Bentosela Mariana 

TITLE=Effect of Intranasal Oxytocin Administration on Human-Directed Social Behaviors in Shelter and Pet Dogs

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2018

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02227

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02227

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=A wide variety of evidence has demonstrated that oxytocin is involved in socio-cognitive
21 skills in domestic dogs (Canis familiaris). The purpose was to evaluate the effect of
22 oxytocin administration on socio-cognitive abilities in two populations of dogs with
23 different levels of daily human contact: shelter and pet dogs. Additionally, the effect of
24 different doses of oxytocin (i.e. 16 and 24 IU) was assessed. To this end, dogs were tested
25 on two tasks: a sociability test to assess their social responses and a communicative task
26 focused on the learning of gazing responses. Results showed that pet dogs performed better
27 than shelter dogs on the sociability and the gazing test, showing the relevance of dogs’
28 previous experience and learning when interacting with people. The administration of 16
29 IU as well as 24 IU of oxytocin improved the performance on the communicative learning
30 task, producing an increment in gaze duration during extinction. This difference was
31 observed in both pet and shelter dogs. Therefore, oxytocin seems to participate in the
32 persistence of this communicative response. However, the treatment did not modify the
33 behaviors during the sociability test. Furthermore, oxytocin appears to be beneficial to
34 increase the communicative abilities of shelter dogs.