8 Things to Know About Treat Training
When I go to lessons and behavior consults, I show up with a pouchful of treats, usually 4-5 different flavors, soft as well as crunchy. I need to make a good first impression, and it pays off for all of us. My 4-legged students are always pretty excited to see me, and eager to learn and earn.
Sometimes I hear objections from their guardians to using treats or worries about using too many, and some ask how soon they can be stopped. There’s often misunderstanding about how and why they’re used and if they’re even necessary.
The One Big Answer is that a strong history of positive reinforcement promotes desirable behaviors, with or without cues, as well as better relationships. Treats used as rewards (not bribes) leads directly to more attention and cooperation, not just in the moment but forever.
How do you know if your reward (food or non-food) is reinforcing? The behavior becomes stronger, more reliable. It’s a win-win.
Using food also makes training fun and promotes happy hormones like dopamine. Training with treats improves communication and connection and has no ugly side effects, compared with “do it or else” training.
Don’t expect your dog to obey just “to please you.” Praise and petting is really not nearly as motivating as food for the vast majority of dogs. Especially for learning new skills. It may be motivating enough for maintaining some behaviors, for some dogs.
So here’s my list of points to keep in mind if you have any concerns about using food for training your pets.
1. Treats are reinforcers, not bribes. Reinforcers happen After behavior. Bribes come Before, to persuade, like coming when called. It’s fine to use treats as a lure briefly to jumpstart a new behavior. But if you don’t get rid of the food lure quickly, your dog can become dependent on seeing it (or hearing someone shake a bag) before deciding to respond. That’s not good training.
2. Don’t let your dog see you even reach for a treat until right after he comes, or whatever you’re training. That’s what makes it a reinforcer, which strengthens behaviors. (Unless it’s an emergency situation or you’re teaching something new with a lure.)
3. Check ingredients. Treats that are healthy and nutritious contain recognizable and fewer ingredients than those that aren’t so healthy. A few of my favorites (because they’re apparently very tasty) are made by Bocce (many varieties), Happy Howie’s (turkey, beef, and lamb), and Fruitables (meatless).
4. Make them small. Break or cut them into pieces the size of your little fingernail, or even smaller for the little ones. Then you can get in several reps per session without your dog getting full or too many calories.
5. Even a lot of small, healthy treats will not make your dog fat. If your dog is already overweight, just cut back a bit on the next meal. Skimping on treats will slow your training success.
6. Other types of treats are super-premium foods that may be too expensive to feed as meals, like Sundays, Ziwipeak, and other air-dried or freeze-dried foods. Also try lickables served from a Licky Stick or long-handled spoon, such as dog-safe peanut butter, low-fat Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, pate-style wet dog food, or baby food.
7. Offer variety and use the appropriate value. Do a preference test if you’re not sure what’s less or more valuable to your individual(s). You may be able to use regular kibble (usually low value) for maintaining easy behaviors that are reliable, like Sit indoors. But you’ll need to go to medium or high for teaching new skills or maintaining current ones when it’s really challenging, like being outside with major distractions.
8. Real-life rewards can replace treats later, as reliability improves. Use whatever your dog really wants in that moment, like opening a gate or door, moving forward on the leash, access to sniffing, greeting people, etc. Petting, for example, may be reinforcing when you’re sitting together on the couch, but not at all if petting is all he gets for coming away from something interesting. Toy play may be more motivating for some dogs than treats in some situations.
As always, if you need help, get in touch!
