Experiments showed that chimps, the animal closest to humans, were hopeless at reading what Hare calls ‘communicative intention’. In its most basic form, this comes down, literally, to pointing things out. It turns out that you cannot do this with a chimp (they’ll simply stare at your finger), but you can with a dog. Only with a dog. And what is more, with very young puppies. In other words dogs are born with the ability.
