Positive Reinforcement and Dog Training IV: Little Dogs vs Big Dogs

In this week’s edition of the series on positive reinforcement and dog training,
we investigate whether small dogs are treated differently than large dogs.
By Zazie Todd, PhD
The answer comes from a large-scale study by Christine Arhant and colleagues in Vienna.
Since Viennese dogs must be registered with the city, they posted a questionnaire to a random sample of registered dog-owners. They received 1276 responses from owners of pet dogs that lived in the home with them. For the purposes of this study, 20kg was the cut-off for small dogs; any dog that weighed more than 20kg was considered a large dog. The questionnaire asked about training techniques and dog behaviour, as well as characteristics of the dog.
One of the nice things about this study is the impressively large sample size. Whereas the previous studies separated out owners who used only positive reinforcement, this study instead looks at the frequency of positive reinforcement and punishment. There was a third category wh…
By Zazie Todd, PhD
The answer comes from a large-scale study by Christine Arhant and colleagues in Vienna.
Since Viennese dogs must be registered with the city, they posted a questionnaire to a random sample of registered dog-owners. They received 1276 responses from owners of pet dogs that lived in the home with them. For the purposes of this study, 20kg was the cut-off for small dogs; any dog that weighed more than 20kg was considered a large dog. The questionnaire asked about training techniques and dog behaviour, as well as characteristics of the dog.
One of the nice things about this study is the impressively large sample size. Whereas the previous studies separated out owners who used only positive reinforcement, this study instead looks at the frequency of positive reinforcement and punishment. There was a third category wh…