Master effective dog training with food rewards! Learn expert tips for using treats to encourage desirable behaviors and build a better bond.
If you’ve ever trained a dog, you’ve probably noticed that food and treats tend to get the best and quickest results. This article explores effective dog training with food rewards. You’ll find nine tips on how professional trainers use food rewards to encourage desirable behaviors from their canine students.
Tip #1: Know that dogs don’t get addicted to food rewards
You might think using food rewards will result in a dog that only does what he’s told when food is available. Instead, your dog will connect a particular behavior with the good feeling he gets when he eats.
Once a behavior is learned and occurs on cue nine times out of ten, start making it more challenging for your dog to earn food rewards. Although you should always praise performance, begin to reduce the food rewards at this stage.
Tip #2: Phase out food rewards gradually and progressively
You can do this either by rewarding only better versions of the behavior or requesting a second behavior for the reward.
Tip #3: Never use food to bribe your dog during training
Bribery involves presenting food before the behavior in an attempt to convince the dog a task is worth doing. This will lead to food dependency, where performance is contingent on being presented with a reward first. Use food only to immediately reward and reinforce behavior after it happens.
Tip #4: Realize you can sometimes use food to lure the dog into position until he learns another cue
Once your dog learns a hand signal, you can add a verbal cue. Gradually phase out the food reward as the behavior becomes more established.
Tip #5: Offer higher-value food rewards for more difficult tasks
Good dog trainers reward harder tasks with better rewards. More difficult tasks deserve higher pay. Dogs will quickly lose interest if the reward doesn’t match the difficulty of the task. Here are four classes of food rewards to reinforce desirable behavior:
- Class A: These are mind-blowing foods or treats – the ones your dog loves the most. Save them for teaching essential skills like “come.” You can also use them to effectively and progressively counter-condition a reactive dog to his triggers. Class A food reinforcers include rare treats like bits of cooked liver, or any other item your dog especially enjoys.
- Class B: These high-value food reinforcers are soft and smelly and can include things like cooked fish or cheese. Use them for introducing new tricks or proofing a dog in a new or distracting environment.
- Class C: Yummy items such as natural, additive-free treats from the pet food store fall into this category. They are great for rewarding tricks and keeping dogs interested.
- Class D: This usually refers to the dog’s regular food. It’s best used for rewards in day-to-day training games where many repetitions are practiced.
Tip #6: Keep food rewards tiny
This way, your dog doesn’t get bored. You can jackpot him with a bunch of tiny treats for outstanding performance, instead of giving him a couple of bigger treats. Keeping training treats small also helps avoid unwanted weight gain.
Tip #7: Be sure to use reward markers during training
Use reward markers such as clickers to clearly mark successive increments of progress toward a goal behavior, right before a food reward is given. They help the dog identify exactly what he needs to do more of to get a food reward.
You can use anything as a reward marker, such as the rustle of a treat bag, a whistle, or a vocal cue like “yes.” However, the most effective reward markers sound unique and clear, requiring minimal mental work to decipher. For this reason, the clicker is my favorite way to mark behavior.
Tip #8: Don’t use food rewards as a distraction
Don’t rely on food rewards to distract your dog in various situations. This approach rarely works when you need it most. Instead, use food rewards as a training tool only. Teach your dog to behave in certain ways through rewarded repetitions with progressive environmental challenges.
Tip #9: Know the limits of food rewards
Food rewards don’t work if your dog is over threshold, frightened, or highly distracted. Train your dog in a quiet, familiar setting when he is calm and can pay attention.
Create a training plan that clearly defines the goal behavior and the small progressive steps needed to achieve it. This is crucial for success. Use food rewards to reach that goal as an easy, effective, and fun way to train him to reliably perform any behavior you want – from a basic “sit” to complicated tricks.
Effective dog training with food rewards means any canine can learn to repeat a given behavior on cue. Dogs also learn to associate environmental triggers with a positive experience when they are marked and paired with food. Food rewards never replace praise and love, but when used properly, they offer a simple and direct way to successfully train your dog.
Why are food rewards so effective?
Food rewards encourage desirable behaviors in dogs in a way that less tangible rewards can’t. This is because food meets a basic primal (primary) need that truly drives behavior.
A dog’s genetically imprinted instinctive behaviors drive him to find and consume food. This means that while your dog might love interacting with you, food is always going to do something that interactions such as approval can’t.
Food rewards quickly and simply create strong and lasting positive emotional connections with either a behavior or environmental stimulus. With time and repetition, food rewards increase the likelihood of the dog repeating the behavior even when the food isn’t available.
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