Positive reinforcement training is rapidly gaining popularity and that, for the most part, that means lots of treats! Treats are used as the primary reward at first because food is something that most dogs love more than anything else. This means they are willing to do almost anything (even a boring sit-stay!) to get a yummy morsel. Think of it as your dog’s paycheck. You wouldn’t work 40 hours a week without pay, why should your dog?
But not all treats are created equal and certainly not all dogs. Sometimes navigating the finesse of using treats for training can be confusing. This article is going to help you understand using treats a bit better and give you pointers that will help you and your dog be more successful at training.
Choosing Training Treats
We all know there is a crazy amount of choice when it comes to dog treats. In general, training treats should be small and soft, so your dog can eat them quickly. If you have to wait even 10 seconds while your dog chews on a crunchy bone, you’ve lost training momentum.
The smaller the better, usually. We tell dog owners small not just because it’s quicker for them to eat, but also because they are going to get a bunch of them, so they won’t fill up as quick. Once your dog is full, they may not be as interested in working for treats. (Imagine you got a $10 million paycheck but then were told you needed to work another 8 hours at $1 an hour. You would probably say no, I have enough money thanks).
However, sometimes you may need a slightly bigger/heavier treat. These come in handy if you need to throw your reward for your dog. For example if you are working on emergency stops. Cut up cheese works well for this or denser treats like Pet Botanics. Cutting up a dog food roll also works great and then your dog can work for his dinner!
Make sure you bring with you several types of treats. Sometimes, your dog may stop eating one or you may find it doesn’t work for what you are working on.
The “Chub” Affect
Of course, there is a downsized to training with treats – the risk of your dog adding some weight. First, remember to reduce one of his meals for the day if he got a ton of treats. For this reason, it’s good to make sure your treats are as healthy as possible. That’s why I like using a food roll. My one sheltie can really only have salmon is large quantities so he gets the FreshPet Salmon roll, it’s actually healthier than his dry kibble I am sure. If we do a lot of training, that becomes his meal.
Which leads us to the next point – working for their meals. Most dogs will work for their kibble at home, if not other places too. So, you can use their dinner for training time and then you are not adding more food into his diet or replacing his healthy food for not-as-healthy treats.
Carrots and green beans can work really well (frozen or raw) for treats too. Both are low calorie.
Upping The Ante
Training with treats is not as always as simple as “my dog offered a sit, I gave him a treat.” For example, some dogs are picky when it comes to food. Of course, you use other rewards (pets, freedom, praise, to name a few), you can also try “better” treats. In dog training, we refer to these as “higher value treats.”
Think of it this way. Let’s say you absolutely love to cook. It’s your favorite thing in the world. On the other hand, you hate doing math, numbers, or any type of bookkeeping. If both jobs paid the same, you would obviously do the cooking one, no brainer, you love it. But what if someone offered you twice the pay to do the accounting job. Hard to turn down right? Sometimes, your dog just needs a higher pay out to do something that may be uncomfortable for them. A great example of this are reactive and/or fearful dogs. To get a scared dog over their fears, they are probably going to need some pretty tasty treats at first.
When Treats Stop Working
So if your dog is not eating the treats you are using, remember it could be that they are too stressed. You can try making the training easier on them and switching to a higher value treat. This is another reason to always have multiple treats on hand.
You can make the training easier by adding distance from whatever is stressing your dog out, changing environment and even just giving your dog a break.
