01/20/2026
Why is food motivation important?
1. It makes teaching new skills more pleasant and engaging so that we don’t only have to teach the skill via leash pressure.
2. It’s helpful for weight management. If your dog is underweight, we know how much to increase. If your dog is overweight, we know how much to decrease.
3. It can aid in improving what would normally be a negative environment, and make it more positive for the dog. Example: dog doesn’t like crowded places, but likes food. We can pair a positive thing (food), with an otherwise unpleasant thing, and teach the dog that maybe things aren’t has scary as they seem.
There could be several reasons why your dog struggles with food motivation, but free feeding them is definitely not helping the matter!
