Dog training with rewards: food and treats

Speaking to a journalist today in Cambridge, we were asked about the methods our dog training school uses.

Food, or treats, is the main reward that I find most effective. Most dogs (but not all!) respond well to food and learn especially well when it comes to food. So the second most common question is, do I need food all the time?

For toy-motivated pets, it works the same.

The answer to that is two-sided:

1. If your training is poor, then yes, you will need food with you.

2. If your training is GOOD, then you won’t need to carry treats with you all the time.

Ideally, I want my pet to listen to me no matter if I’m holding a treat, a bag of treats, or a toy.

Through our dog trainer courses, a dog is taught that a food reward is exactly that: a reward. It’s not a snippet to create a behavior, it’s a reward for successful behavior. There is a clear distinction between bribing your pet to do something and rewarding him for something he knows.

The use of food alone will not solve all problems in dog training; if it did, then people wouldn’t have the kind of problems that exist in the world today, and we wouldn’t be continually asked how to stop your dog from pulling. to the head, or get more attention by retrieving him.

I originally started out as a ‘food’/’clicker’ trainer, but quickly learned that when a dog is full (or bored) of food treats, there is little we can do to encourage an animal or enforce a command. The fact is that we must have full control over our pets at all times, regardless of whether they are hungry for our food or not.

Dog training is exactly that: the key is not to make an animal “work for you”, the key is to keep a dog motivated enough to THINK you have food with you (or whatever reward you’re using). One goes from a continuous booster (try every time) eventually to an intermittent one (every other) to a random one. That means sometimes they get 5 treats, sometimes they get nothing for the next 10 withdrawals.

The difference is that you HAVE to keep your dog motivated. For many, 10 recalls begin to teach a dog that there is nothing for them; then for this specific dog you MUST reward your dog sooner, for example 5 withdrawals.

Dog training is simple when you know how, and having an instructor to guide you, especially on practical problems, is one of the biggest advantages for a beginning dog trainer or dog owner. If in doubt, call a professional who has proven time and time again that they can train the problem you are having with your dog.

For tips on how to train your dog, or even videos of our dog training – visit us at G3 Dogs | Professional dog training.