We characterized the reward patterns of dogs’ owners for the expression of desired behaviors of their pets through a questionnaire made available online on a social media page for 7 days (responses from over 66,676 owners). The questions were related to the type and frequency of rewards that pet owners applied and what specific dogs’ behaviors were rewarded. Desired behaviors of dogs were frequently reported to be rewarded. Responding correctly to commands and playing with their own toys were behaviors reported to be rewarded more frequently by owners than eliminating in appropriate places, a behavior perceived commonly just later. Moreover, owners reported that they rewarded more frequently by petting and praising the dogs and less frequently by applying a combination of giving both food and toys to their dogs. Thus, dog owners commonly reward desired behaviors by petting and prasing the dogs, most likely because it is the most convenient reward to use. Moreover, rewarding is more common when dogs express desired behaviors more immediately perceived by owners, which has welfare implications for these companion animals.

我们通过在社交媒体页面上在线提供了为期7天的调查表，对狗主人表达其宠物所期望行为的奖励模式进行了描述（来自66,676名主人的回复）。这些问题与宠物主人应用的奖励的类型和频率以及奖励特定的狗的行为有关。经常报告狗的期望行为会得到奖励。正确响应命令并玩自己的玩具的行为比所有者在适当的地方消除行为得到奖励的频率更高，这是后来才普遍意识到的行为。此外，主人报告说，他们通过宠爱和称赞狗来奖励的频率更高，而通过给狗提供食物和玩具的结合来奖励的频率则更低。从而，狗的主人通常通过抚摸和and狗来奖励他们期望的行为，这很可能是因为它是使用起来最方便的奖励。此外，当狗表现出主人更立即意识到的期望行为时，奖励更为常见，这对这些陪伴动物有福利意义。