Referential gestures are produced to direct attention (Leavens 2004). They are mechanically ineffective movements of the body which are repeated and elaborated on until they elicit a specific response from an intended recipient (Bates et al. 1975; Hobaiter and Byrne 2011; Malavasi and Huber 2016; Warneken et al. 2006). From an early age, human infants use gestures to draw a recipient’s attention to objects they desire (Bates 1979) and it has been suggested that most communicative events contain both motivational and referential components (Hauser 1996; Marler et al. 1992). Pointing is the most commonly used human referential gesture (Liszkowski et al. 2012) and is thought to be a key component of human language development (Franco and Butterworth 1996), as it strongly predicts language acquisition (Bates 1979; Colonnesi et al. 2010).

For a gesture to be considered as referential in function it must conform to five features. First, it must be directed toward an object or specific area of the signaller’s body, e.g., a child pointing towards a specific toy. Second, it is a mechanically ineffective movement, e.g., a gesture that is not designed to act as a direct physical agent such as the human pointing gesture. Third, it is aimed at a potential recipient and fourth, receives a voluntary response from that recipient, e.g., a child repeatedly points at a toy and then looks at/points at their mother who then, of her own accord, retrieves the toy and gives it to the child. Finally, a referential gesture must also demonstrate hallmarks of intentional production, e.g., a child repeatedly points at a toy then waits for a response from their mother; when no response is forthcoming the child continues to point at the toy but also introduces a new gesture, such as grabbing air, so as to achieve their goal (Pika and Bugnyar 2011; Vail et al. 2013).

Referential gestures are non-accidental. Therefore, a signaller needs to demonstrate an intention to communicate with their intended recipient (Savilli et al. 2016). There are five attributes of intentional communication (Genty et al. 2009) in contemporary use. For a gesture to be considered intentional it must be given by an individual in a goal-directed way (Genty et al. 2009). The obtaining of a result provided the motivation for producing a gesture and the recipient’s actions must satisfy the signaller to indicate their intentions (Hobaiter and Byrne 2014). If the outcome is not satisfactory to the signaller, response waiting is expected to be seen (Call and Tomasello 2007; Tomasello et al. 1994), followed by repetition of the gesture or incorporation of others in a process referred to as persistence and elaboration (Cartmill and Byrne 2007; Leavens et al. 2005). A final criterion for an intentional gesture is that it must be directed at an audience (Genty et al. 2009). According to Malavasi and Huber (2016), to be considered as referential a gesture must show at least some of these attributes of intentionality; in particular persistence and elaboration (Woodruff and Premack 1979).

In contrast to their frequent use by humans, referential gestures in non-human taxa are relatively rare (Vail et al. 2013). Most research demonstrates the use of referential gestures by great apes in captivity, where subjects gesture to a human experimenter (Cartmill and Byrne 2007; Leavens et al. 2004, 2005; Leavens and Hopkins 1998; Woodruff and Premack 1979). In the wild, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) use a vocalisation known as the ‘rough grunt’ (Goodall 1986) as a referent in feeding contexts (Slocombe and Zuberbühler 2005) and will use directed scratches potentially indicating an area of the body they wish the recipient to groom (Pika and Mitani 2006).

Referential gesturing, however, is not unique to primates. Ravens (Corvus corax), for cexample, have been observed performing object-orientated behaviours to direct the attention of their conspecifics (Pika and Bugnyar 2011). Moreover, some species of coral reef fishes, the grouper (Plectropomus pessuliferus marisrubri) and coral trout (Plectropomus leopardus), use referential gestures to indicate the location of hidden prey (Vail et al. 2013). Interestingly, Vail et al. (2013) also reported that groupers and coral trout use these referential signals to initiate cooperation with hunting partners.

Companion domestic dogs present an interesting case for the study of referential gestures as they spend most of their time interacting and communicating with heterospecifics. Investigations into dog–human communication have revealed that interactions between humans and dogs have referential components (Bensky et al. 2013). Dogs have a set of skills that allow them to use and understand human-produced referential cues (Agnetta et al. 2000), even out-performing other domesticated animals in these tasks (McKinley and Sambrook 2000).

Domestic dogs can also perform ‘showing’ behaviours in referential communicative bouts. ‘Showing’ behaviours are defined as communication which contains both a directional element related to an external object and an attention-getting element that directs the attention of the recipient to the signaller (Miklósi et al. 2000). Investigators have demonstrated that dogs use the position of their body to indicate the location of a goal object (Gaunet and Deputte 2011) and alternate their gaze between an object of apparent interest and the human while barking (Miklósi et al. 2000), thereby communicating their intentions.

Thus far, dog–human communicative research has tended to focus on dogs’ ability to understand human-given gestures. Research has shown us that from a very early age (6 weeks) puppies can follow a human pointing gesture (Hare et al. 2002; Riedel et al. 2008). When completing an object choice test (locating hidden food using a social cue) dogs understand several different human-given social cues: (a) a human pointing at the food location; (b) a human orientating their gaze to the target location; and (c) a human bowing or nodding at the target location (Hare et al. 1998; Miklósi et al. 1998). Dogs also perform at above chance levels when using social cues produced by unfamiliar humans and conspecifics (Hare and Tomasello 1999) and are successful in following the pointing gesture given by an artificial hand (Kundey et al. 2014). Knowledge concerning dogs’ abilities to produce gestures that can be understood by humans, by contrast, is lacking. Here we attempt to bridge that gap by observing gestures that pet dogs direct to their owners during everyday communicative bouts to investigate referential gesturing and humans’ ability to understand the gestures performed by dogs.