Petting Vs. Praise - What Does Your Pup Like Best? You'll Be Surprised!

Pup Mommies and Daddies spend lots of time making their fur balls as happy as can be! Whether it’s by treats, walks, toys, praise, physical affection, or some other means, pups love getting lavished with love.

But what do they prefer? Does praise make them happy, or is it a good pet that brightens their day? As it turns out, a study was conducted to find out just that! Researches gathered three groups of pups and people to discover the answer. The first group consisted of shelter pups and two human strangers. The second group was of owned fur balls and two human strangers. The final group had owned pups with one human stranger and one of their parents.

The pups were then brought to rooms where the two humans in their group would sit on chairs in two separate places. One person provided praise when the pup came near, and the other would pet them. Whichever person he spent more time with, the pup would be said to prefer the attention of. Then, after five minutes, the two people would switch their provided rewards. This was so that the researches could find out if it was the person or the reward that the pup preferred. A second test was then run with different fur balls to show if they preferred a person who gave them pets, vocal praise, or no interaction.

The test results were very conclusive: pups much preferred petting over praise, even if their parents were the ones giving them the praise. Ouch! They also seems to like verbal praise just as much as receiving no rewards at all. I guess this means that pups in general don’t consider verbal praise to be that big of a deal!

By the way, these tests were run again later to see whether pups preferred petting or food. Guess what? They like food much better than pets! Honestly, I’m not surprised at all by that! Don’t forget to like and share these findings and apply them when you’re training and rewarding your pups!

Feature Image Source: Pixabay