Do dogs spontaneously recognise their owner’s face in photographs?

Previous research has shown that in order for a dog to recognise its owner, the owner’s head and face needs to be visible. Furthermore, it has been found that dogs can learn to discriminate familiar and unfamiliar 2D representations of human faces. However, it currently remains unclear whether dogs spontaneously recognise their owner’s face in photographs. Therefore, the aim of the current experiment was to determine if dogs could distinguish between a photo of their owner’s face from a photo of a stranger’s face. The current paradigm separated dogs from their owners which tested the dog’s ability to recognise their owner’s face in a photograph to achieve reunion. During the test procedure, dogs (N = 23) were positioned in front of a large screen with multiple covered windows, that the owner and stranger both stood behind. When dogs were looking centrally, two lower curtains were opened revealing the owner’s and stranger’s legs. Following this, two windows above (head height) were opened revealing life-sized photos of the owner’s and stranger’s face with neutral expressions, then the dogs were released. The photographs were taken in either optimal conditions (looking straight forward, taken with flash) or sub-optimal conditions (looking left or right, up or down, artificial light, taken without flash). There was also an odour condition in which only the people’s legs were revealed. Results revealed that dogs (N = 15) went to their owner significantly more than the stranger in the sub-optimal condition (P = .039). Dogs also went to their owner more often in the optimal condition (N = 13), although this difference was not significant (P = .192). Finally, dogs chose their owner at chance level (50%) during the odour condition (P = .500), clearly demonstrating that dogs did not use scent in the task to facilitate their performance. In summary, dogs are able to recognise their owner’s face from photographs, but the optimal conditions for face recognition seem to differ from those of humans.