I just came across a research article on whether dogs prefer petting or vocal praise, and the jury is in: Dogs prefer petting to vocal praise, paws down! In fact, they would rather be petted by a stranger than receive vocal praise from their owners. And, they liked vocal praise only a little better than no interaction at all. The study included two Yorkies named Nick and Snickers, so this study applies to Yorkies as well. Here is the link to the article, which is probably behind a pay wall, but I'll quote from some of the article below:
Shut up and pet me! Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent and single-alternative choice procedures Highlights
•Both shelter and owned dogs prefer petting to vocal praise in concurrent choice, even when the owner provides vocal praise.
•Preference for petting continued even when only one alternative was available at a time.
•Vocal praise produced as little proximity-seeking behavior as no interaction from the experimenter.
•Dogs showed no evidence of satiation for petting.
•Petting is likely an unconditioned stimulus and promotes social behavior in dogs but vocal praise likely has to be specifically conditioned.
Abstract
The nature of the interactions that maintain the social behavior of dogs toward humans and which interactions dogs prefer have not been thoroughly investigated. We focused here on dogs’ preference for petting and vocal praise, and the influence that familiarity (owner vs. stranger) has on that preference. We first used concurrent choice to evaluate dogs’ preference for petting or vocal praise and measured the initial choice, the time spent with each alternative, and the number of within-session alternations. We assessed dogs’ preference for petting or vocal praise in (1) shelter dogs, (2) owned dogs with strangers providing both interactions, and (3) owned dogs with the dog's owner providing the interactions. Across all experimental groups, dogs preferred petting to vocal praise. We next assessed time spent with each alternative when only one alternative was available at a time in shelter dogs and owned dogs (Experiment 2). Shelter dogs were tested with a stranger and owned dogs were tested with their owners providing the interaction. Dogs alternated between petting and vocal praise, vocal praise and no interaction, or received only petting for eight 3-min sessions of each comparison. Both shelter and owned dogs spent significantly longer in proximity to the experimenter when the interaction was petting compared to vocal praise. Vocal praise produced as little proximity-seeking behavior as did no interaction. Additionally, dogs did not show any sign of satiation with petting across all eight sessions. Overall, petting seems to be an important interaction between dogs and humans that might maintain inter-specific social behavior but vocal praise likely has to be specifically conditioned.
[..]
Overall, our results point to petting, or contact comfort (
Harlow & Zimmerman, 1959), as being an important interaction for dogs that can produce social behavior. It is likely also relevant in attachment formation between dogs and humans. Using petting and other preferred activities for dogs, such as food delivery, we should focus on the development of attachment between dogs and humans and the role these interactions might play in shaping and maintaining separation related problem behaviors.