phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at o:4643 DOI 10.1007/s10071-025-01967-w Do dogs form reputations of humans? No effect of age after indirect and direct experience in a food-giving situation Animals can form reputations of individuals through direct interactions or by observing interactions with a third party, known as eavesdropping. Given their cooperative relationship with humans, considerable interest has focused on whether dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) can socially evaluate humans, though findings remain mixed. To assess whether this ability develops during ontogeny, we investigated whether dogs of different ages (young, adult, and senior) can form reputations of humans after observing them interact with a conspecific or through direct interactions in a food-giving situation. Forty pet dogs participated in the experiment. In the eavesdropping condition, dogs observed two humans interact with a dog demonstrator—one was generous and fed the dog, while the other was selfish and withheld food. In the direct experience condition, dogs interacted with the two partners directly. We analysed dogs’ first choice and time spent exhibiting affiliative behaviours towards each partner. Results showed that dogs across all age groups did not significantly prefer the generous partner compared to the selfish partner, nor did their behaviour exceed chance levels following indirect or direct experience. These findings do not provide support for dogs showing reputation formation and highlight the methodological complexities of studying this phenomenon. eng Dog Cognition Social Cognition Eavesdropping Reputation Formation Age Human-animal Interactions 2025-12-01T09:43:33.067Z LOMv1.0 Author BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Jim;Hoi-Lam; FN:Hoi-Lam Jim X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8590-7167 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Belfiore;Kadisha; FN:Kadisha Belfiore END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Martinelli;Eva B.; FN:Eva B. Martinelli END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Martinez;Mayte; FN:Mayte Martinez END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Range;Friederike; FN:Friederike Range X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3127-5536 END:VCARD BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:3.0 N:Marshall-Pescini;Sarah; FN:Sarah Marshall-Pescini X-ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5944-4701 END:VCARD https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/scheme https://w3id.org/kim/hcrt/text Textdokument Text LOMv1.0 yes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 application/pdf 1851701 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:4643 https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/api/object/o:4643/thumbnail LOMv1.0 discipline