Children Too! –
November 8, 2019 – Pups that experienced calm, gentle teachers, however, performed better at tasks that researchers assigned to them, such as locating a bowl with sausage in it — in a roomful of empty but sausage-smeared bowls. More harshly trained canines were slower to locate the treat bowl, which authors interpreted as showing that their experiences had made them more depressed, less hopeful hounds.
The biologists also analyzed dogs during training to look for “stress behaviors” such as lip-licking, paw-raising, yawning and yelping. “Critically, our study points to the fact that the welfare of companion dogs trained with aversive-based methods appears to be at risk,” the researchers conclude.
