By Claudia Bensimoun

First published in Animal Wellness magazine.

A new study reveals that canines use both visual and cognitive cues to identify others of their species, regardless of breed.

Ever wondered how dogs spot a fellow breed in a crowded park? This Animal Wellness Magazine feature by Claudia Bensimoun explores the fascinating ways canines recognize other breeds through scent, size, and social cues. Packed with vet insights, it dives into how dogs use olfactory signals and body language to navigate play and pack dynamics, offering tips for better socialization.

From border collies to bulldogs, the article unpacks breed-specific behaviors, drawing on holistic care principles to enhance canine wellness. Perfect for pet parents seeking to understand their dog’s social world, it connects to broader research on activity-based recovery and stress relief. Below, we highlight key sections from this insightful guide. Read the full article on AnimalWellnessMagazine.com here.

Louise’s daughter asked her an interesting question one day while they were walking their dog. The friendly golden retriever had just stopped to say hello to a passing pug. “How does Kiefer know that’s another dog?” the little girl asked. It’s a good question, especially when you consider the huge physical diversity of different breeds.

According to veterinarian Dr. Dominique Autier-Derian of the National Veterinary School in Lyons, France, dog breeds exhibit the most excellent morphological variety of any animal species, which means visual recognition poses a true cognitive challenge for individual canines.

For example, compare a Great Dane, a Mastiff, a Chihuahua, and an Irish Wolfhound. Given the vast differences between these breeds in size and shape, not to mention coat type, color, and muzzle length, they don’t look like they’re even from the same species. Unlike wolves, foxes, or other wild canines, domestic dogs present a huge phenotypic diversity. With so much variation in size, shape, and appearance, how do dogs know when they’re interacting with other dogs?

In any social interaction, dogs need first to determine whether the other animal belongs to their own species. This can be done by smell, sight, and hearing, but it can also involve cognitive processes such as discrimination and categorization. In a recent innovative study, Dr. Autier-Derian found that, using visual cues alone, dogs can pick out the faces of other dogs (regardless of breed) from different animal species, and group them into a category of their own.

Nine adult dogs (five females and four males owned by students at the National Veterinary School took part in this study. Two of the nine dogs were purebred (one a Labrador, one a border collie), and seven were crossbreeds. None had the same morphotype in terms of form, color, marking, hair length, and ear type, whether upright or drooping. All the dogs were between two and five years of age, had extensive prior experience of visual interspecific and intraspecific interactions, and basic obedience training. They also underwent ophthalmological and behavioral examinations.

How the study worked

Dr. Autier-Derian and her fellow researchers wanted to observe whether the nine dogs could discriminate between breeds of dogs and other species, including humans, and whether they could group all dogs, regardless of breed, into a single category.

The dogs were shown 144 pairs of colored digital head pictures depicting various dogs, animals, and humans. The images were displayed on a pair of computer screens at the dogs’ own eye level. Each image pair included the face of an unfamiliar dog and the face of an animal of a different species, including humans.

The dog images encompassed many purebreds and mixed breeds. They were selected to illustrate the wide variability of canine morphotypes, including differences in head shape, hair length, color, and ear position. The non-dog photos included people and 40 different species of domestic and wild cats, rabbits, and birds.

The dogs were trained to sit in front of an experimenter, on a line between the two screens. Upon hearing a command, each dog would make a selection between the two images in front of him by going to one of the screens and putting his paw in front of the chosen image.

Compelling results

All nine dogs in the study were able to group all dog images, regardless of breed, into a single category.

“Dogs display a very efficient visual communication system toward conspecifics [same species], and also to human beings,” she says.

“The fact that they can recognize their own species visually, and that they have great olfactory discriminative capacities, ensures that social behavior and mating between different breeds is still potentially possible. Although humans have stretched the canis familiaris species to its morphological limits, its biological entity has been preserved.”

We already know that dogs are more intelligent than most people think. Still, this study demonstrates they’re even more thoughtful when it comes to learning how to recognize their own species, whether it’s a Toy Poodle or a Great Pyrenees.

Claudia Bensimoun, Dog Breed Recognition, Canine Behavior, Dog Socialization, Animal Wellness 2023, Canine Social Skills, Dog Scent Cues, Holistic Pet Care, Vet Behavior Insights, Dog Play Behavior, Canine Wellness, Pet Social Training, Dog Visual Cues, Canine Agility Behavior, Pet Behavior Science