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View Full Version : Why Dogs Put Up with Us


James Brody
December 10th, 2008, 12:22 PM
Man's best friends do put up with a lot of crap. Maybe here's why...

JimB

"We found differences in dogs tested without food reward in the presence of a rewarded partner compared with both a baseline condition (both partners rewarded) and an asocial control situation (no reward, no partner), indicating that the presence of a rewarded partner matters. Furthermore, we showed that it was not the presence of the second dog but the fact that the partner received the food that was responsible for the change in the subjects' behavior. In contrast to primate studies, dogs did not react to differences in the quality of food or effort."

More at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2008/12/08/0810957105.abstract