Stray dogs can distinguish friends from foes, finds biscuit and stick test by Calcutta researchers

Stray dogs in Calcutta and Kalyani can tell friends from foes after researchers tested them with biscuits and sticks, according to a study by scientists at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER). Professor Anindita Bhadra and research scholars Srijaya Nandi, Dipanjan Roy, Abantika Adak and Rohan Sarkar studied 54 groups of street dogs across these cities. The researchers observed the street dogs over five days before testing their responses with an unfamiliar person on the sixth day. The experiments showed that threatening dogs with a stick made them wary mainly of the specific stick-holder without reducing their willingness to approach unfamiliar people, while feeding them biscuits made them more likely to approach other people, including strangers. Bhadra stated that the study shows “dogs viewing humans after such interactions, a friend of a friend is a friend, but a friend of an enemy need not be an enemy.” The findings suggest that intimidating street dogs with sticks has limited effectiveness in reducing human-dog encounters, while feeding them can inadvertently increase their approach toward people who might be uncomfortable around them, potentially raising the risk of bites.