If you’re anything like us (and we know most of our readers are) than you love a little cuddle and a long, fat chat with your pooch after a hard day of work. Well, to be fair, we spend most of our time chatting to our furry friends. But what’s wrong with that, right? No foul, no harm! That’s what we thought too.

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In a recent journal called Behavioural Processes, two canine behavior experts reported otherwise. The article, entitled “Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures” is super factual and full of great insight into your dog’s brain and how they precept your communications. Yup, it even addresses cuddling and kisses!
If you don’t have $35.95 to spend on the article, or a good couple hours to read it, we’ve highlighted the key points and address some of the issues we know you may struggle with, or may not even be aware of. You’re welcome! Now let’s get stuck in!

The Basics
So basically, your dogs don’t enjoy the long conversations you have with them quite as much as you do. In fact, they much prefer a good ol’ belly rub.(dog walking services nyc)

How Do We Know This?
Well, scientists/ canine experts tested it! They had two people sit in a room with a dog. One would speak in a high tone of voice, praising the dog with the usual “Good dog!” and so on, while the other offered petting on the neck and back as well as the most popular form of petting -belly rubs. They spent 5 minutes with a dog and then switched places, so the one that was giving the verbal praise would change to petting and vice versa. The form of affection that held each dog’s attention for the longest, turned out to be petting. Wow! What a surprise! Of course they tested a bunch of variables and a wide range of dogs, so these facts are hard to ignore!
The trial used both shelter and owned dogs and found that every dog they tested preferred petting. In fact, the dogs reacted the same way to vocal praise as they did to absolutely no interaction whatsoever. The study also showed that there was no evidence of a dog being satisfied by a certain amount of petting, which is probably why your dog never wants to stop cuddling!

How Does This Affect My Dog?
Firstly, it certainly doesn’t mean that your dog hates it when you talk. Oh no! It simply means that dogs prefer petting to vocal praise. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that YOUR DOG prefers it either. Petting is likely to be preferred by most dogs, while vocal praise is usually something that has to be specifically conditioned in a dog.
So how do you train your dog to enjoy your daily convos? Associate your vocal praise with a reward (like treats or even petting) and sooner or later your pooch will value it. And now that you’ve learnt something new and have plenty of belly rubs planned for your dogs tonight, here’s a little treat for you (and it’s absolutely amazing!):

A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action! was last modified: April 4th, 2023 by NYC Pooch advicehappy dogtips