Petra Dobos (MSc) is a doctoral student within the Department of Ethology (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary). This research paper is part of her PhD program, which targets the environmental and genetic factors that may influence dogs’ reliance on their body size-awareness in spatial problem-solving tasks. Ms. Dobos has already published several research and review papers about the effects of functional breed selection on dogs’ social behaviour, and she also won the prestigious “Outstanding Student of the Faculty” award at the University in 2023, as well as the Young Ethologist of Hungary prize in 2025.

Dr. Péter Pongrácz (PhD habil.) is an associate professor within the Department of Ethology (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary). He graduated as a biologist in 1994 and received his PhD degree in 2000, from the same institute. His graduation thesis topic was predator avoidance in fish fry, and his PhD dissertation covered how rabbits learn to distinguish between conspecifics and non-conspecifics. He has been a lecturer in undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral education at the Department of Ethology since 1999. He supervises the research activity of students at all levels and leads research projects as the principal investigator. His current research interests involve the sociocognitive capacities of cats and dogs, including social learning, self-representation and hierarchy-related behaviours. Since 2020, he has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Applied Animal Behaviour Science journal. He received an Innovative Researcher award from his Institute, as well as an award for mentoring the most successful students in research.