12/26/2025
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BWhLzoWqx/
Something I hear from time to time as a trainer is people saying, "I don't want to bribe my dog with food to get them to listen." And I have a lot of thoughts about that statement! Let me share a few...
➡️ First off, if my time studying literature in college taught me anything it's that word choice matters.
Bribe immediately implies something duplicitous, unethical or even illegal. It's a word with a strong negative connotation.
So when I hear someone try to squeeze that word past me in regards to rewarding their dog with food, I circle back.
Is getting paid for your employment a bribe? Is rewarding a child for cooperating a bribe? No!
Finding a form of currency that motivates a dog and using it effectively to get behavior you want is one of the most time tested, effective ways of dog training.
➡️ If you have a dog who loves treats, count your lucky stars 🌟
Treats are cheap, easy to use, and highly motivating for many pups.
Take a look at the dogs who trainers train to the highest levels and you will nearly always find something in common...they are all dogs who are motivated to earn things.
Trust me, trainers who are consistently training dogs to advanced levels and winning awards are not telling their dogs to do things "because they said so."
Quite the opposite, we are skilled artisans of building high levels of cooperation by channeling things that motivate our dogs.
You might see a video of the end result where a dog is working without food/toys/praise but what you missed are the weeks, months and years behind the scenes of paying our dogs!
➡️ People often want to get rid of using treats due to the effort of carrying them around.
I can't say it any clearer than this: if you're under the assumption that not using treats will be less work to meet your training goals, you are sorely mistaken.
The workload grows exponentially if you don't have an easy and reliable way to pay your dog. Treats are the easy way for an awful lot of dogs.
➡️ Details matter! Often I hear a client tell me that they tried the approach I am recommending (like using treats) and that it didn't work or it created a problem.
This can absolutely happen.
But in many of these cases, small changes can add up to big differences in the end result. It's like following a cake recipe where you left it in the oven just a bit too long and the end result was not appetizing.
So if I have a dog who is way too excited about treats or has rude behavior around treats, that's a great opportunity for us to work on manners rather than avoid the issue.
➡️ When it really counts, my dog loses interest in treats. If your normally treat motivated pup loses interest in treats, they are telling you something important!
And that message = my learning brain is turned off 🧠
Most of the dogs I work work have learning brain turned off because of stress. This would look like a treat motivated dog who no longer pays any attention to their snack when they see a dog approaching.
Other pups get overly excited about something around them and lose interest in food.
These are not failures of using treats, this is information about what kind of conditions your dog needs to practice in.
I actually use treats as one piece of info to check in with a dog about whether their learning brain is turned on or off.
➡️ I don't want to have to be always reliant on showing my dog I have a treat.
Fair enough. But what I see from most people who are saying this is that they want to skip the crucial foundation of using treats to build buy in and create positive habits and rush to the stage where they get rid of treats. It doesn't work that way.
The single most important thing to me when teaching a dog a skill is am I getting buy in from them? If I haven't convinced them paying attention to me or their person matters, everything else collapses.
So if food can capture their attention to build that foundation, I use it. Then there is a process to gradually reduce/remove food so that it doesn't have to be so blatantly transactional.
➡️ The overall point is, if you have a dog who is willing to cooperate with food and you're working on getting them to cooperate, refreshing their skills, or teaching then something new, don't be afraid to use treats.
I sure do!
-Erin ❤️🐾
