09/19/2024
TRAINING WITH TREATS. In the world of dog training everyone has an opinion of what methods to use to train a dog. This post is not to get into an argument about which method is best, it is to hopefully get across the method l like to use and how l use it.
When l do my theory classes l tell people to bring in high value treats to class, high value is because they are going to be competing with a new environment in the classroom and they need something to get their dogs attention.
Eventually high value treats would be mixed in with kibble so that the dog never knows what they will be getting. Toys would not be practical in a class setting as they would be too distracting for the other dogs although l do use toys or treats when l train on a one-on-one session if it will keep the dog engaged with me.
KEEPING THE DOG ENGAGED WITH ME is a big part of how the treats work, l do NOT just keep passing treats to the dog's mouth thinking that is all l need to do to get them following commands, l get them to earn the chance to be rewarded with that food is coming from me.
The easiest way for them to earn to food is to look at my eyes, its a natural behavior that dogs check in every 5-10 seconds, so l am using something that comes naturally to a dog.
The more a dog gets rewarded for looking at me, the stronger that behavior becomes. The more they keep themselves engaged with me the easier they become to train as l now have their attention.
At this stage l can also use my voice to encourage them and praise them for their efforts. It's a win, win as dogs love to have our attention, and the more their attention is on me😀 the less they are scanning the environment which would cause them to be distracted.
So, some of you might be thinking that this means you have to always have treats on you to get the dogs to do anything. The way l get past this is when in the beginning the dog gives me any kind of behavior that l would like to encourage them to do more l pair that behavior with the word YES, whenever l say yes l pair it up with the treat.
What happens over enough repeats is that the word YES becomes the replacement reward for the dog. You could practice saying YES followed by Good Girl, for your dog that loves getting attention from you that reward word yes would be as good as getting a treat from you.
l do use treats in the beginning stages of training so that l can lure my dogs into the position l need from them, maybe a down or sit.
With a down, the moment their legs stretch out and their tummy rests on the floor l say Yes and release a treat to them, when they hear the word yes they associate it that whatever they did at that precise moment (tummy on the floor) got them that reward.
They will then start repeating that behavior in the hope of getting a reward and attention from you.
As this behavior becomes more consistent, as they go down say the word DOWN followed by the word YES and a treat.
Of course this is just a short-written explanation of how treat training works and I generally find that a video explains it more clearly so l will try and do one his week ad post it on this page, then if you have read this it should be easier to understand.
Plus I can add a few more things in about why it might not work for you if your dog is over threshold and will not take the treats.
For anyone that follows the you tube videos that l do and constantly see my feeding the dogs l have in for training with food, it is because l apply the learn to earn, or no such thing as a free dinner principle, so it looks like l am relying entirely on the food to get the dogs to do anything.
I do admit that l may use it to much sometimes, but l would rather over reward compared to under rewarding and so far for me this method has always worked for me. I never have to use the word NO but l do constantly use the word YES.
The dogs learn to love the word yes, it becomes their reward.
Not sure why this is not showing the link to watch this , but if you go to my you tube channel which is caroline bird dog training and type in the heading bar movement games week 15 the video should show up to be watched.
