Dog-human bonds could guide development of social robots

A new study identifies seven dog behaviors seen as important for bonding with your dog. In a step towards development of robots that interact meaningfully with humans, - a new study - led by the University of Glasgow and published in PLOS ONE - highlights specific dog behaviors that dog owners perceive as important for bonding with their pets. Robots with social behaviors have been proposed as a potential solution to ease people's loneliness and the challenges of aging. Given the difficulty of creating robots that behave like humans, and the known benefits of the bond between owners and their dogs, some researchers are exploring the possibility of developing dog-inspired robots that can form similar bonds with humans. However, this endeavor requires a deeper understanding of specific dog behaviors that facilitate human-dog bonds. To gain deeper insight into human-dog bonds, researcher Katie Riddoch and colleagues from the University's School of Psychology and Neuroscience, conducted a survey study of 153 dog owners. They asked the participants open-ended questions about which dog behaviors they felt were especially important in establishing and maintaining their bond with their dog.