Researchers at the ELTE Department of Ethology, Budapest investigated if companion pigs and dogs would show their owners the location of a food reward out-of-their reach (but reachable for their owner). They found that if only the owner was in the room pigs paid her/him as much attention as dogs did. However, when the reward was also present only dogs tried to direct the attention of the owner to the reward location. This suggests that directing humans’ attention to interesting locations may not be something that every domestic animal can do. Pigs might lack characteristics that are crucial for the emergence of this type of communication. The study is published in Scientific Reports . 

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