Do Dogs Prefer Treats Or Affection?


by Luellen Hoffman


Recently I had the opportunity to be a judge at the school Science Fair, when I came across this interesting canine project. It caught my eye since the topic, “A Dog’s First Love” and the display graphics were both unique and intriguing. Hannah Battaglia’s 8th grade


science project was naturally limited in its scientific research, but wonder- fully advanced for an elementary school Science Fair. She loves dog psychology with a passion, and hopes to develop it into a career, so I thought her project deemed worthy enough to share, thinking we may have just stumbled across a future, “Dog Whisperer.” The challenge of this project was to find out what dogs were drawn to


52 THE NEW BARKER


more: affection from their owners or treats — an age-old question often pondered by both dog owners and trainers. I had my own guess but wanted to see what she found in her research. To begin with, her family dog


Rocket (shown above) was not given any unnecessary food (just the regular daily meal) for about two weeks. Then the dog was not given any attention for the first five minutes when people entered the room. Every day the per- son conducting the experiment would evaluate Rocket’s behavior and record their observations in a note- book. The purpose of her experiment was to prove what dogs seek more of; attention or affection from their humans, or just food?


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