Or maybe they to it because we think it is cute. The dog's evolution is totally tied to their interactions with humans. The head tilt is a form of communication, them telling us that they are doing a particular behavior. Those that head tilt would better communicate with people, resulting in better treatment, more breading opportunities and an evolutionary pressure towards more head tilting.
These are border collies, a working dog designed to interact with a human handler. Take a look at something like a cane corso or great pyrenees. They don't head tilt nearly as much because such close communication is not what we have, through breeding, designed them to do.
I hesitate on this explanation in this specific case just because the reason that we think head tilting is cute in dogs is because we also do it - and IMO we also do it when we're remembering something successfully - so I'd check for it in non-domesticated animals (wolves) and in other mammals.
Our evolution has also been altered by dogs. We may have evolved the trait so that we could better communicate with them. Or we mimic them, a cultural thing.
In evolution things usually persist for multiple reasons. It seems possible that the gesture is both functional (in terms of the dog's hearing) and attractive (to humans). An attempt to perceive correctly and a signal of openness and willingness to do so.
Sure. I just think it would be more interesting to know why the authors of the study, who have probably invested much more time thinking about this than any of the commenters here, concluded that that explanation was not satisfactory.
Maybe because they had already decided to stick a particular bread of dog. Border collies are far from representative of the species. They are built for a very particular task, one that is far from universal. There are many things for which they are not suited.
It isn't an either/or situation-- turns out the intelligence we attribute to a social animal is related to our ability to communicate with it.. which shouldn't seem weird at all. It's not clear we have a good understanding of 'intelligence' /outside/ of the social context. The word itself just means 'understanding'.. and 'understanding' is just the read end of 'communicating'.
Coming up with a definition of intelligence that doesn't need an observer/understander is an interesting exercise; kinda demonstrates my point inasmuch as the word stops taking on a unified meaning and we find ourselves grasping around for the real Y-axis.
That said I think the head-tilting somehow increases cognition for a second, and the social signalling is an added benefit. Maybe it's a blood flow or cerebrospinal fluid thing. Big brains use a lot of blood oxygen and glucose while they're working. But that's just me BSing.
Regarding the cane corso-- fighting/guard dogs don't do the head tilt, but they're not gonna learn the words either...
Also, dogs evolved to communicate with dogs for ~(10E7) years, then learned to communicate with humans for ~(10E4) years. I think they mainly speak dog.. well, not dog, but puppy; the common path of mammal domestication being through juvenilization.
You raise a good point--dogs (and cats) have been domesticated for so long that interaction with humans has become essential to their...worldview is the word, I guess?
Certainly various breeds have been bred for different purposes, and are very good at them.
We think it is cute today. Did humans think it is cute thousands of years ago? Can you assume that humans that were domesticating wolves thought any animals were cute or attractive in some form?
These are border collies, a working dog designed to interact with a human handler. Take a look at something like a cane corso or great pyrenees. They don't head tilt nearly as much because such close communication is not what we have, through breeding, designed them to do.