New eye-tracking research sheds light on how dogs process and predict the actions of both human and non-human agents, demonstrating that they prioritize the location of an action over the identity of the object involved. This suggests a unique aspect of canine social cognition, where spatial information plays a crucial role in their understanding of others’ behaviors. The findings were published in the journal Animal Cognition. Previous research has suggested that humans use their own motor experiences to interpret other people’s movements. This ability develops early in life and is seen in infants and apes. For instance, human infants and apes have been shown to anticipate that an agent will continue to interact with the same object, even if its location changes, suggesting a strong object-oriented approach in their action understanding. However, dogs present an interesting case study due to their significant evolutionary and developmental differences from humans and apes. Despite their inability to replicate many human actions due to anatomical differences, dogs have a rich history of co-evolution with humans, making them keen observers …