I think we'd learn more about dolphin communication by generating tasks that require a human and dolphin to collaborate in the water; the task should be novel f

I think we'd learn more about dolphin communication by generating tasks that require a human and dolphin to collaborate in the water; the task should be novel for both subjects. As things are we seldom let the dolphin 'lead' the task; but these animals are highly adapted to the water. With a human-dolphin pair, the dolphin would be in the position of using its superior knowledge of the environment (sonar) to direct the human's superior ability to manipulate objects (hands). For example, how would a human-dolphin pair collaborate in a pitch-black cave? Dogs are very good at manipulating human behavior; the party line is that wolves have better problem solving in general but dogs are better when there's a human in the room. Dolphins don't have the benefit of coevolution that dogs do, but they're smart and social; I bet they could figure us out.