Study: Despite The Head-tilt, Your Dog Doesn't Care What You Have To Say
By Chelsea Karnash
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Your dog has something to tell you: Less talking, more petting.
That's right. Your (undoubtedly adorable) pooch has little to no interest in your constant goo-goo gah-gah talk. What he or she really wants is physical contact, and more of it.
In a new study published in the journal Behavioural Processes titled "Shut Up and Pet Me!", researchers found that both shelter and "owned" dogs showed preference for petting over being talked to, and that vocal praise produced as little "proximity-seeking behavior" in dogs as no interaction whatsoever.
The research was done using shelter dogs, owned dogs and strangers, and owned dogs with their owners. Dogs received alternating periods of petting and vocal praise, vocal praise and no interaction, or received only petting for eight sessions that lasted three-minutes each.
"Both shelter and owned dogs spent significantly longer in proximity to the experimenter when the interaction was petting compared to vocal praise," the study's authors write. "Additionally, dogs did not show any sign of satiation with petting across all eight sessions."
In other words, you really can't pet your dog too much, either.
But if you still can't resist launching into baby-talk whenever little FeeFee comes into view, don't worry – scientists do it too.
"I spend half my day talking to my dog," co-author Dr. Clive Wynne, who is also a professor and the director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, reportedly told The Huffington Post in an email. "She always looks like it's valuable to her. It's quite a shock to discover that what we say to dogs doesn't seem to be rewarding to them after all."
Shocking indeed.
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