Abstract In apes, six criteria are set to explore apparent referential and intentional communication (Leavens et al., 2005). Three of these criteria are: 1) successive visual orienting between a partner and distant targets, 2) the presence of apparent attention-getting behaviors, 3) the requirement of an audience to exhibit the behaviors. Taking these 3 criteria as a reference, we analyzed how pet dogs engage in communicative behaviors in the presence of their owner when the dogs' toy is out of reach. Observations were performed when only the toy, only the owner or both the toy and the owner were present to control for motivational (vs. intentional) and referential nature of the behaviors. Gaze alternation between the hidden target and the owner, and the position of the dogs in relation to the location of the target were analyzed. The results show that, as in chimpanzees, gaze alternation was used, by the dogs, as an apparent functionally referential and intentional communicative behavior. The dogs apparently also used their own position as a local enhancement signal. We concluded that part of the criteria to assess apparent referential and intentional communicative behaviors in gaze alternations and locations in space, is found in dogs.