Dog puppies spontaneously match human actions, while kittens and wolf pups …not so much…

According to a new study published in Scientific Reports puppies - but not kittens and wolf pups - tend to spontaneously imitate human actions, even when they are not rewarded with food (or toys). The researchers of the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Budapest, investigated whether young puppies, kittens and wolf pups have different tendencies to observe and imitate what a person did, without any pre-training and food reward.