Those dog treats, coupled with praise for a dog’s job well-done may not be necessary, new research suggests. “Awake Canine fMRI Predicts Dogs’ Preference for Praise Versus Food,” was recently published online in the Journal Social, Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. It confirms more dogs prefer praise over food. Gregory Berns, a neuroscientist with Emory University used an MRI to scan a dog’s brain while the dog was awake and unrestrained. Berns is also the author of the book, How Dogs Love Us.”
Source: Washington Post, August 17, 2016.
The results showed that for 13 of the 15 dogs, their brains were stimulated by the praise just as much, if not more than, the food.
“A dog with high preference for social reward might be best suited for certain therapeutic or assistance jobs,” the study notes. “While a dog with less of a neural preference for social reward might be better suited for task that require more independence, like search-and-rescue dogs or hearing-assistance dogs.”