No matter how confining you are with your eyetooth associate , it ’s hard to sway that sneaking misgiving that your dog only sees you as a walking treat dispenser . The results of a recent study should leave insecure detent owners with some ease : When presented with different rewards , most hot dog best-loved extolment over food , Sciencereports .
For the first one-half of the work [ PDF ] , which will be report in a future issue ofSocial Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience , researchers monitored the mentality bodily function of 15 dogs . The four - legged subjects were first evince a plaything motorcar and praise by their owners . Later , they were give a toy sawhorse with a piece of hot dog . Thirteen out of the 15 Canis familiaris showed an adequate or greater reception in the sphere of the brain associated with decision - fashioning and advantage when reinforced with praise rather than treat .
A different experimentation had the dogs set at the start of a forked maze with a bowl of intellectual nourishment at one end and their owner at the other . In most cases , the dogs slip away up the treats and chose the track that led the pets to their pet man . The pawl in the nonage who cut towards the food bowl turned out to be the same study who reacted strong to food in the first trial .

A written report of 15 may not be large enough to support to any solid conclusions , but it does reflect previous research suggest that the love between dogs and their possessor is reciprocal . ABBC2 documentary , which aired in February , base that storey of oxytocin ( or the “ cuddle hormone ” ) increases by about 57 percent in frankfurter after play with their mass . ( In cats , the chemical showed a measly 12 percent boost . ) So if you ’re look to pull through money on dog goody , keep in mind that your front in your dog ’s life history may be rewarding enough .
[ h / tScience ]
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