A study indicated that domestication has so altered the behavior of dogs over time that even untrained puppies are able to understand gestures like human pointing, while chimpanzees, humans' closest relatives in the animal kingdom, are not. In the study, humans pointed to an object that was within reach of the subject animal (either a dog or a chimpanzee), and if the animal retrieved the object, it received a treat. The chimpanzees largely ignored the humans, while the dogs were much more responsive. According to the study authors, the effect of domestication is so pronounced that even some cats naturally understand pointing gestures (though much less so than dogs).
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