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In a new study exploring how dogs recognize and generalize objects, researchers from Eötvös Lorand University (Budapest) discovered that dogs prioritize texture over shape when identifying objects. The paper is in the journal Scientific Reports.

For the study, the researchers recruited 35 dogs who were trained to fetch a target object from a set of distractors. During testing, the dogs were presented with two choices: one matching the target in shape and the other in texture.

The test consisted of eight trials—four target trials, where they had to choose between the trained target object and an object with a similar shape or texture, and four generalization trials, where the dogs chose between two objects: one similar to the target in shape, but with a different texture, and the other with the same texture but different shape.

The dogs often approached the shape-matching object first but ultimately selected the texture-matching object, suggesting that first they first tended to use sight to approach the object that was visibly similar to the target in shape, but then tactile cues were key in their final choice.

These results highlight dogs' reliance on different sensory modalities, similar to humans' only to some extent, when identifying and generalizing objects.