Science: Friend or Foe?

The following study was sent to me recently:

http://seab.envmed.rochester.edu/jeab/articles/2012/jeab-98-01-0105.pdf

The question being evaluated was the relative value of food or social interaction as a reinforcer for dogs being asked to perform a simple task (nose touch).

To look at this question, fourteen shelter dogs were evaluated - they were offered opportunities to work for either food or personal interaction (4 seconds of petting/praise) and their responses were recorded.  In addition, four "pet" dogs had the same test run with their owners, to help clarify if the results were a factor of whether or not the dog's personal relationship with the trainer was important.

It comes as no surprise to me that the dogs performed much better when food was the reinforcer rather than four seconds of personal interaction.

So far so good.

Here's where things start to go wrong:  One of the conclusions was that:  "Social interaction functioned as a low-value reinforcer." Further, for the one dog that worked just as hard for praise/petting as for food, one of their possible explanations was that the dog may have been "conditioned" (by the pairing of food with praise prior to the shelter), to value praise.

The good news is that they did point out that individual dogs might have different responses to the value of praise.

Why does this research disturb me?

First, because four seconds of petting/praising is NOT social interaction.  It is four seconds of petting/praising.  That is not genuine. We do not praise dogs (nor people)  in that manner.  When my dogs do something well, I do not praise/pet for a predetermined amount of time and then cut it off, asking for more work.  How can a dog possibly perceive that as genuine interaction?  Here's another way to ask the question: Was the researcher genuinely pleased with the dog, or simply going through the motions as dictated by the research design?  My gut tells me it's the latter; remember, scientists are expected to be detached.

Praise is GENUINE; it only works if you mean it!  If you offer it to train your dog as part of an experiment then yes, it is likely to fail.  Some dogs will take what they can get - any praise is good praise.  But most dogs accept praise from those they care about - when they believe it is real.  Really, it's not so different from people.

Second, the value of praise is built over time with a specific person and style of interaction.  If I want my dogs to work for praise, I will have to practice it - not by pairing it with food, but by finding the type of praise that works for that particular dog.  Like humans, dogs are individuals - unlike eating, social interaction is not a one size fits all proposition.  Each of my dogs works best for a different type of personal interaction, and none of them would work for praise from a stranger. It took me time to find those interactions, and with the youngest dog I'm still actively searching.  This doesn't mean it's not real, but it does mean that it's not nearly as obvious as food to use in training.

If you did this study with a toy (ball or tug) instead of food, you would almost certainly get the same results.  Most dogs do not value toys as much as food, unless you make an effort to build the value of toys.   As a rule, my young dogs prefer food to toys, but after I work on developing their love of toys, they will, without exception, choose the toys over the food.  Indeed, if I bring out food they act like they are being punished.  Note that I never paired the toys with the food; in my mind that kills the dog's natural interest in toys.  I simply use the toys in a way that brings out a dog's natural interest in playing with objects - the underlying primary motivator of pursue, grab and fight.

Is this preference for toys over food the same for all dogs?  Of course not.  Dogs will have innate interests and tendencies, just like people!  I'm sure there are dogs that care a lot about food and relatively little about personal interaction.  And there are other dogs that are highly motivated by personal  interaction or toys, but not as much by food.  It is noteworthy that the breeds of dogs most often selected for AKC performance events are also the breeds of dogs that seem to take most easily to toys and personal interaction as effective reinforcers.

I have no argument with the researcher's conclusion that food is the reinforcer of choice for training most dogs - it is certainly the easiest for the average person to use, it is effective with a high percentage of dogs, and you can get in a whole lot of repetitions in a short time.  But that conclusion does NOT support the second conclusion that the researcher came to; that genuine praise is a relatively low value reinforcer, any more than it would be correct to say that toys are a relatively low value reinforcer simply because most dogs will initially work better for food than toys.

I worry that these kinds of conclusions devalue how we view dogs.  When dogs are subjects, controlled by their desire to eat and fundamentally uninterested in humans, then we give them "object" status.  Objects have no innate value beyond whatever monetary or sentimental value we may attribute to them.  The odds that people will do ugly things to dogs go up when they are objects.  When you view dogs as selfish takers rather than as partners, you undermine the innate value of dogs and people as a team - the middle that grows between them.  It's not so different than the years when Skinner's behaviorism ruled child rearing - the children's need for cuddling and love was scoffed at since only food, warmth and a clean diaper made the radar.  Some of those babies died.  Apparently no one could quantify the need for love, so they concluded that it did not exist.

When I sit by a whelping box and watch four week old puppies wag their tails and smile up at me, I'm hard pressed to say they don't feel good in my presence.  At that age no one has given them food, so they cannot associate food with humans; the puppies simply enjoy my company.  For sure there are other explanations about why they choose to interact with me, but the one that "feels" right is that they have an innate interest in humans.  No, I've never studied it.  I've simply lived with dogs and puppies, watched them carefully, and played with them for thirty years.

I've never considered myself anti-science, so why this rant?

Because science forms the backbone of much that I believe about dogs - that training is best when dogs are working towards positives rather than away from aversives.  I believe that because it is my experience, and it happens to be backed up by research.  I want to believe that science can come to genuinely accurate conclusions that I can use when making my own decisions about how to proceed in a given circumstance with a specific dog.

I find it hugely damaging to human/canine relations to suggest that we are a secondary reinforcer; that dogs only interact with us because they are hoping for food.  My guess is that the purpose of this research was to support the use of food in training - that is good. Unfortunately, I know that many people will interpret it to mean that dogs and people cannot have mutually enjoyable social interactions - that is bad.

Sometimes I wonder if there are animal researchers who have never simply loved a dog.  If you are a scientist, then for one minute, stop with your science and sit with a few dogs.  Pet those dogs.  Watch them interact with each other and with you - no food involved.  After you do this, tell me that the only reason your dog cares is that you have been conditioned as a secondary reinforcer.

Bullshit.

26 comments

Kari Lavalli

Okay I am a scientist and a dog owner and a learning trainer. There are so many problems with the study as you have presented it. First, the researchers presumably knew nothing about the history of the 14 shelter dogs. Those dogs could have had 1) good experiences with humans, 2) bad experiences with humans, 3) no experiences with humans except once sheltered. When we talk about a social species, like the dog, context is extremely important. So if you had a dog that had a bad experience with humans, then yes, certainly food would be a higher motivator than human interaction (that’s a “duh” moment). Same would be true for a dog that was basically feral. Only those dogs that had had good experiences with humans might value human interaction and then that would largely be dependent on the type of interaction.

Seond, let’s look at the 4 pet dogs. Again, think of the range of human-dog pet relationships. These can be “I have a dog to protect my house and yard and just be a dog” — which is basically no real relationship. Could be “I have a dog and I pay attention to it when I have time and energy, but mostly it just hangs out.” Both of those types of pets are likely to find food a helluvah lot more rewarding than interactions with their owners. But for those of us who play with our dogs, train our dogs, play some more with our dogs, cuddle our dogs, and treat our dogs like a real entity with feelings and needs, well those dogs might actually prefer human interaction to food. And even then, if the dog was hungry, that might change the context too. My dogs love interacting with me because we play shaping games, tug games, training games and even wrestle. But by god if it is dinnertime, then they want food, not me (well, only me inasmuch as I deliver the food). Did the study bother to standardize hunger levels or to remove the issue of hunger and timing of food delivery? Without reading the study, one cannot say how any of these factors were standardized or even if they were taken into consideration — and if they were not, then this study is just junk science, since social behavior is always contextual in nature.

Katherine

Yes and that is why providing animals with enrichments is probably a zoo keeper’s most important roll. However it is framed as a continuum of stress not specific emotions. A zoo keeper’s job is to familiarize themselves with their animals and notice subtle changes in their behaviors. The conversation with the curator would go “I believe the great horned owl is stressed because I have observed A, B and C.” Not, “I think the great horned owl is sad because…” Not attributing human emotions does not negate empathy and wellbeing, I think quite the opposite actually it forces you to try your darndest to think like said animal and figure out what in its environment is not working towards a low stress life without our own human emotions clouding ALL possible combinations of contributing factors, psychological and physiological.

Science of Dogs.

I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s insulting and it usually comes from people who have never done any science.

Science of Dogs.

I susprised you to write that the concept of emotions is dangerous. In fact as far back as 25 years ago the 1986 Home Office code of practice and the Animal Welfare Act (1987) mandated not only physical well being but also their psychological welfare.

Caryn F.

This really hit home with me, Denise. I agree with everything you ‘ranted’ about. I sometimes feel like my dog only loves food or toys, but not me. I get so frustrated with her and myself, and think where the heck did I go wrong? I just need to find something that makes her energy explode and really get her going when training. She’s 8.5 years old, and I’m still searching for something that ticks her when we train. She does like to chase toys, but I need to act crazy an get her really going. Any suggestions on how to get her to find value in our training sessions?

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