As the study showed, dogs responded well to both food and praise, which is what we'd expect. However, what's surprising is how few dogs preferred food over praise! Keep reading to learn more about this revealing study:
Researchers from Emory University decided to look into the novel question of whether dogs prefer praise or food, using analysis of both behavior and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the dogs’ brains.
This first required the dogs to learn how to enter the fMRI scanner without being restrained or sedated, and to keep still while the scan took place. Then a series of experiments involving 13 dogs took place.
First, the dogs learned to associate a pink toy truck with a food reward, a blue toy knight with verbal praise from their owner and a hairbrush with no reward (the control). While in the fMRI scanner, the dogs showed stronger neural activation for the reward objects than the control item.
Further, four of the dogs had particularly strong neural activation for the praise reward while nine dogs had similar activation for both food and praise. Only two dogs seemed to prefer food over praise.
In the next experiment, the dogs went through a Y-shaped maze multiple times. At one end was a bowl of food; the other led to the dog’s owner and when the dog arrived, the owner praised the dog.
The neurological profiles obtained in the prior experiment fit with their maze choices, such that dogs that showed strong neural activation for praise chose their owners over food most of the time. Berns explained to Emory University.
“We found that the caudate response of each dog in the first experiment correlated with their choices in the second experiment … Dogs are individuals and their neurological profiles fit the behavioral choices they make.
Most of the dogs alternated between food and owner, but the dogs with the strongest neural response to praise chose to go to their owners 80 to 90 percent of the time.
It shows the importance of social reward and praise to dogs. It may be analogous to how we humans feel when someone praises us.
… Out of the 13 dogs that completed the study, we found that most of them either preferred praise from their owners over food, or they appeared to like both equally. Only two of the dogs were real chowhounds, showing a strong preference for the food.”
Wow! We had no idea our praise meant so much to our pooches! We knew they liked it, and everything, and that most pups want to make their people happy, but we never expected something as simple as our praise could be even better than food. This is amazing!
Article Source: Healthy Pets
