Domestic dogs are trained using a range of different methods, broadly categorised as reward based (positive reinforcement/negative punishment) and aversive based (positive punishment/negative reinforcement). Previous research has suggested associations between use of positive punishment-based techniques and undesired behaviours, but there is little research investigating the relative welfare consequences of these different approaches. This study used a judgement bias task to compare the underlying mood state of dogs whose owners reported using two or more positive punishment/negative reinforcement based techniques, with those trained using only positive reinforcement/negative punishment in a matched pair study design. Dogs were trained to discriminate between rewarded and unrewarded locations equidistant from a start box, and mean latencies recorded. Their subsequent latency to intermediate ‘ambiguous’ locations was recorded as an indication of whether these were perceived as likely to contain food or not. Dogs trained using aversive methods were slower to all ambiguous locations. This difference was significant for latency to the middle (Wilcoxon Z = − 2.380, P = 0.017), and near positive (Wilcoxon Z = − 2.447, P = 0.014) locations, suggesting that dogs trained using coercive methods may have a more negative mood state, and hence that there are welfare implications of training dogs using such methods.

家犬使用一系列不同的方法进行训练，大致分为基于奖励的（正强化/负惩罚）和基于厌恶的（正惩罚/负强化）。先前的研究表明，使用基于积极惩罚的技术与不良行为之间存在关联，但很少有研究调查这些不同方法的相对福利后果。本研究使用判断偏差任务来比较狗的潜在情绪状态，这些狗的主人报告使用了两种或多种基于正面惩罚/负面强化的技术，以及在配对研究设计中仅使用正面强化/负面惩罚训练的狗。训练狗区分与起始框等距的奖励和未奖励位置，并记录平均延迟。他们随后对中间“模糊”位置的延迟被记录为表明这些位置是否被认为可能包含食物。使用厌恶方法训练的狗对所有模棱两可的位置都比较慢。这种差异对于中间潜伏期（Wilcoxon Z = - 2.380，P = 0.017）和接近阳性（Wilcoxon Z = - 2.447，P = 0.014）位置的潜伏期显着，表明使用强制方法训练的狗可能有更消极的情绪状态，因此使用这种方法训练狗会产生福利影响。