The Art of Treating

Vivian Levén Shoemaker, CPDT-KA

Fur-Get Me Not Dog Training Director and Owner of POSITIVE DOG

Food is something all healthy dogs and people enjoy to lesser or greater degree. After all, it is what keeps us alive and being hungry is not much fun. This is why food in training lingo is described as a primary reinforcer. The dog does not have to learn that food is a good thing, it is innate. Other examples would be; drink, exercise, smells, visuals (especially for herding dogs), some touch and sexual contact.

There are healthy and unhealthy foods for dogs just like people. Learn to read ingredients labels and what they mean to protect your dog from unhealthy foods. Choose food and treats that are produced as human grade and do not contain dyes, preservatives and other unhealthy additives. How picky you become depends on your view of the food production system and your wallet. Now you can even buy dog food and treats that are antibiotic and hormone free.

Treats that are smelly and soft are often higher in value. These treats are also easier to break into smaller pieces, which is very important when you are practicing new obedience cues or good manners in general. You are not feeding these treats to fill your dog up, you are using them as payment and reward to motivate your dog to accomplish a task.  In the initial stages of the learning process this means getting the dog to repeat the behavior multiple times so you definitely do not want to fill him up.  Another way to increase the value of treats is to offer a variety of different kinds. If you feed the same thing day after day, week after week, the value of the food will go down.  High value treats can consist both of store bought dog treats and things you may have in your own refrigerator such as hot dogs, cheese or chicken.

A good approach to training with treats is to view them as money. What is it that you are asking for worth? You can think of the behaviors you are asking your dog to do as either cheap or expensive. Sitting is a cheap behavior for most dogs for these reasons:

1. Not much energy is expended for that behavior
2. Usually the dog has been reinforced over and over again for the behavior (it has a solid reinforcement history)
3. Sitting is a comfortable position for most dogs
4. The behavior is cued, for the most part, when the dog is right next to you (proximity makes it easier). Therefore, do not pay much for this.

Coming when called, on the other hand, is an expensive behavior for most dogs for these reasons:

1. Often the dog is in the midst of doing something else that he has to first disengage from and it is usually something fun or interesting to him (following a scent, getting some important dog information from a bush, playing with other dogs at the park, etc.)
2. He is probably further away from you versus when you ask him to sit, which means a greater effort on his part to get to where you are.
3. You probably do not work on this regularly, and when you do it is usually in a real-life setting he is not quite equipped to handle yet. Therefore, pay well for this!

The situations described above are just a general example and may not be true for your particular dog. Your dog is going to tell you which actions are cheap or expensive behaviors to him. The more he is paid accordingly to what he thinks his behaviors are worth the less of a stickler he is going to be in the future when you ask him to do something. Over time he is going to do things for you without questioning it as much because it has become a habit, a habit that he feels good about. Now of course, there are dogs that prefer smelling the ground or chasing something that moves over food (competing primary reinforcers). This makes the training more of a challenge. It means that you will just have to be a bit more creative with these dogs in how you arrange your training sessions, if your dog is hungry whatever you have to offer will go up in value, and you may need to expand beyond food to something else your dog is more motivated by.

Treats can also be used to reinforce general good manners, aide in the socialization process, be a valuable tool in modifying unwanted behaviors, and be an effective way to help you keep your dog busy chewing on bones and mentally stimulated by the great selection of activity toys on the market today.

While I hope this offers a useful map in navigating through some of the great ways we can interact with our dogs using food, please be mindful that if you are seeking a deep and meaningful relationship with your dog, food alone can only do so much. Do not replace it with playing and spending time together, learning his likes and dislikes, going on excursions in the neighborhood together and learning your dog’s special way of communicating so you can actually have a conversation together… really get to know who your dog is and have fun together!

This exert was taken from the September 2010 edition of the Fur-Get Me Not customer newsletter.  To learn more about Fur-Get Me Not’s unique Levels training classes or private in-home training, visit our website at http://www.furgetmenot.com. If you are in need of behavior consultations to help with issues such as aggression, resource guarding, separation anxiety, or any other behaviors related to fear or phobias, POSITIVE DOG can help. Vivian Leven Shoemaker is the owner of POSITIVE DOG and the Dog Training Director for Fur-Get Me Not.  She is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer with over 10 years experience in the field of animal behavior.