Pet Dogs Prefer Humans to Other Dogs Under Competing Social Contexts

Domesticated dogs ( Canis familiaris ) display remarkable sociability toward both humans and conspecifics, yet it remains unclear how they prioritize distinct social and nonsocial motivations when these drives compete. Prior work has focused largely on the human–dog bond, but less is known about how social preferences compare across competing motivational contexts, an important feature of temperament. To address this gap, we developed a Canine Sociability and Social Preference Test, adapted from rodent paradigms and paired with automated tracking to yield reproducible readouts, with high spatial and temporal resolution. Adult pet dogs ( n = 32) completed a sequence of two-choice trials designed to capture both Sociability (social vs. toy object) and Social Preference (human vs. dog, as well as comparisons with food and toys). In Sociability trials, dogs preferred both humans and conspecifics over a nonsocial object, confirming independent attraction to each. In Social Preference trials, dogs preferred humans over conspecifics, whereas food and social stimuli elicited comparable levels of preference at the group level, though marked with individual variation. The human-over-dog preference was robust and consistent across repeated trials. Tail wagging served as a complementary socio-emotional measure, with dogs wagging significantly more near humans than conspecifics. Together, these results establish a versatile new paradigm for assessing canine temperament. Findings highlight robust group-level preferences—dogs preferred humans over conspecifics, and both social partners over objects—while also revealing variability in how individual dogs responded to social versus nonsocial stimuli. Such individual differences in motivational priorities are a key feature of temperament and have important implications for welfare, enrichment, and optimizing human–dog relationships.