For years, people have thought that food was the best way to reward dogs. When they behave well, when they perform a trick, when they learn something new… the most common reward has been the familiar “treat.” Or, failing that, any other food the dog might enjoy. And this is, in fact, how most species that form close bonds with humans are treated.
We need only look back at the famous classical conditioning experiments carried out at the beginning of the 20th century by the Russian physiologist and Nobel Prize winner Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov demonstrated that if dogs are trained to associate a particular stimulus with food, they will salivate at the mere presence of the stimulus, expecting food. These experiments seemed to show that dogs only want food and that their owners are simply the means to obtain it. (Note that in this case we said “owner” and not “aristoparent.”)
These theories are being set aside and replaced by more current ones. Part of the neuroscience community argues that dogs value human contact in and of itself.
This is demonstrated by a new study published in the journal Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, sponsored by Emory University and authored by Gregory Berns. The research is among the first to combine brain imaging data with behavioral experiments to explore dogs’ reward preferences.
Thirteen dogs took part. Most of them (nine) preferred affection and displays of love from their aristoparents over food. A minority showed the same preference for both types of reward, or preferred food alone.
For the experiment, the researchers trained the dogs by associating three different objects with different outcomes. A pink toy truck signaled a food reward; a blue toy knight indicated verbal praise from the owner; and a hairbrush signaled no reward, serving as a control. Tests with the three objects were conducted in a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine. Each dog underwent 32 trials with each of the three objects while the activity of its neurons was recorded.
They were subsequently subjected to a behavioral experiment. Each dog was familiar with a room containing a Y-shaped maze: one path led to a food bowl and the other to the dog’s owner. The owners sat with their backs to their dogs. The dog was then released to choose a path. If it went to the owner, the owner praised it.
Most of the dogs alternated between the food and the owner, but the dogs with the strongest neural response to praise chose to go to their owners 80 to 90 percent of the time.
The studies are part of the Dog Project, which investigates evolutionary questions surrounding man’s best and oldest friend in order to understand the basis of the bond between dogs and humans.
Dogs really are exceptional. So it is no surprise that, being so affectionate and loyal, they prefer the love of their aristoparents to food. This means that rewarding them with food is fine, and dogs certainly appreciate it. But it is much better to do so with affection. That is what truly makes a dog happy. And it is comparable to how we feel when we are praised. So, dear aristopeters: from now on, more words and kisses, and fewer treats
