PrepTest 148, Section 3, Question 1
Treat training consists of rewarding dogs with edible(67 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(10 more words not shown)
- AThe more quickly(22 more words not shown)
- BThe more often(28 more words not shown)
- CA dog should(17 more words not shown)
- DA dog should(15 more words not shown)
- EA dog should(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The dog learns how to get a treat. Has it learned to listen when there isn't one? That is the limitation the author points out. Treat training can work well while you're holding food, but most dogs trained this way won't obey without seeing it. Since you won't always have a treat, I can see why the author wants another method.
But do praise and verbal correction work? Imagine a dog that happily sits for food but ignores being called a good dog. Having your voice available wouldn't help much if the dog didn't respond to it. The author has given us a problem with treat training without establishing that the proposed replacement solves it.
What we’re looking for
We're looking for a principle that helps justify the recommendation. My first thought is a rule or fact establishing that praise and correction are effective.
Working the answers
- A
This predicts what an owner is likely to keep doing. The conclusion recommends what an owner should do. Even if quick learning makes owners stick with a method, that doesn't make the method a good choice. We also aren't told that dogs learn more quickly through praise than through treats.
- B
How often are the two kinds of training used? We aren't told. This rule might suggest a way repeated treat training could eventually work without a visible treat, but it doesn't give us a reason to prefer praise and correction. We would have to add facts about training frequency before applying it to the comparison.
- C
Treat training already meets this description: it produces obedience when a treat is shown. A rule accepting success in at least some circumstances therefore doesn't support abandoning that method. The author's concern is what happens in the other circumstances, when the owner has no treat.
- DCorrect
This addresses reliable availability rather than directly proving that praise works. The rule says to train a dog to respond to something the owner can supply in every situation. Treats fail that requirement because the owner can't always have them on hand. That gives the author a reason to favor a response to praise and verbal correction instead. It doesn't settle every question about how well the replacement works, but it supports the particular objection the argument raises to treats.
- E
We haven't been told that treat training lacks any proven success. The passage explicitly says dogs quickly learn to respond to treats. Its limitation is the need to show the treat, not a complete absence of effective results. This rule addresses a different reason to reject a method.
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