Interspecific communication plays an important role in mediating human–animal interactions, particularly in contexts involving access to anthropogenic resources. This study examined begging behaviour in free-ranging dogs in urban India, focusing on how social context, dog sex, experimental condition and experimenter gender influenced total begging time and the proportion of begging expressed as active solicitation. We observed 650 adult dogs and analysed begging behaviour using beta-binomial generalized linear mixed models. Solitary dogs spent a greater proportion of the observation period begging than dogs observed in groups, and females begged more than males. However, among dogs that begged, solitary individuals showed a lower proportion of active begging than dogs in groups, suggesting that solitary dogs begged for longer overall whereas group-living dogs showed a relatively greater active component when begging occurred. Experimental condition did not significantly influence either total begging time or active begging proportion. Experimenter gender also did not significantly affect total begging time, although dogs showed a marginal tendency to display lower active begging towards male experimenters. A survey of 841 local residents showed that female respondents were more likely than male respondents to report feeding street dogs, providing social context for possible gendered variation in dogs’ prior experience with humans. Overall, our findings suggest that begging behaviour in free-ranging dogs is shaped more strongly by social context and dog sex than by the immediate gaze and food cues tested here. These results highlight the context-dependent nature of dog–human interactions in human-dominated environments.
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