If you have a dog, you are more than likely aware of their passion for food. He asks you for a bite every time you start to eat, licks his bowl until it shines when you serve him his portion, and goes crazy when you offer him a sweet. So much so that we have to be very cautious with what we feed them, both in terms of quantity and quality, in order to prevent the dog from suffering from obesity.
But another element that dogs especially like are toys, especially when they are puppies or young people. Whether it's playing toss the ball, tug-of-war with your favorite stuffed animal, or chewing on a piece that makes noise in a friendly way. But, between the choice of toys or food, what does man's best friend prefer? This was the question that psychologists from the University of Florida asked themselves and decided to carry out a study to find the answer.
To carry out the research, they selected ten domestic dogs from the area. They were shown six foods – such as treats, cheese, carrots and sausages – and six toys – such as a tennis ball, a squeaky toy, a plastic bone or a stuffed animal – and let each dog choose which one was his. food and his favorite toy.
Next, they began a training exercise to see which element motivated the canids the most, making them work harder and harder to achieve the reward. They then observed that the majority of participating dogs lost motivation earlier when the reward was a toy, while they were more perseverant when what they were offered was their favorite treat.
"I was surprised, but no one had analyzed before how dogs will work with toys versus food," he explained in statements collected by the specialized science portal EurekAlert! Nicole Dorey, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Florida, who conducted the study with her students and her other collaborators. In this regard, she highlights that studies have shown that dogs put human attention before food. Therefore, “I think the next study should look at all three (attention, food and toys) and what dogs really like most when training,” Dorey added.
And edible rewards are not the only valid reward as positive reinforcement for dog training, but toys or signs of affection are also effective. “You can definitely train your dog with toys if you start very early,” Dorey said, specifying that “this is what you do with search and rescue dogs: they start very early with toys as reinforcement.”
The study, whose findings were published in the journal Animals, was led by students Xenabeth Lazaro and John Winter. Collaborators from the Florida Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University also contributed.
