Editing Dog intelligence (section)

=== Social learning: observation and rank ===
[[File:Dog with treat.jpg|thumb|A dog being instructed by its owner to resist eating a [[dog biscuit]]]]
Dogs are capable of learning through simple [[reinforcement learning|reinforcement]] (e.g., [[classical conditioning|classical]] or [[operant conditioning]]), but they also learn by watching humans and other dogs.<ref name="coren"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/article/how-dogs-learn1|title=How Dogs Learn|publisher=National Animal Interest Alliance|access-date=4 July 2014}}</ref>

One study investigated whether dogs engaged in partnered play would adjust their behavior to the attention-state of their partner. The experimenters observed that play signals were only sent when the dog was holding the attention of its partner. If the partner was distracted, the dog instead engaged in attention-getting behavior before sending a play signal.<ref name="ach">{{Cite journal |title= Attention to attention in domestic dog (Canis familiaris) dyadic play |journal=Animal Cognition |volume=12 |year=2009 |doi=10.1007/s10071-008-0175-y |last= Horowitz |first=Alexandra |authorlink=Alexandra Horowitz |pages= 107–18|pmid=18679727|issue=1|s2cid=207050813}}</ref>

Puppies learn behaviors quickly by following examples set by experienced dogs.<ref name="coren"/> This form of intelligence is not particular to those tasks dogs have been bred to perform, but can be generalized to various abstract problems. For example, [[Dachshund]] puppies were set the problem of pulling a cart by tugging on an attached piece of ribbon in order to get a reward from inside the cart. Puppies that watched an experienced dog perform this task learned the task fifteen times faster than those left to solve the problem on their own.<ref name="coren"/><ref>{{Cite journal|doi=10.1002/dev.420100310|journal=Developmental Psychobiology|volume =10|issue=3|pages= 267–271|year=2004|title = Ontogeny of observational learning in the dog (Canis familiaris)|author1=Adler, Leonore Loeb  |author2=Adler, Helmut E. |pmid=863122}}</ref>

The social rank of dogs affects their performance in social learning situations. In social groups with a clear hierarchy, dominant individuals are the more influential demonstrators and the knowledge transfer tends to be unidirectional, from higher rank to lower. In a problem-solving experiment, dominant dogs generally performed better than subordinates when they observed a human demonstrator's actions, a finding that reflects the dominance of the human in dog-human groups. Subordinate dogs learn best from the dominant dog that is adjacent in the hierarchy.<ref name=pongracz2012/>