Using Treats
in your Dog
Training
By Ed Frawley
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Leerburg Kennels
Foreword
When you view this eBook in PDF format. Click
on BOOKMARKS on the top left side of your PDF
reader, these bookmarks are eBook chapters.
Leerburg® Kennel and Video is owned by Ed Frawley.
Ed has owned German Shepherds (GSD) for over 45 years.
Since 1978 he has bred over 350 litters of German working
bloodline GSD’s. His dogs work in law enforcement, as
S&R dogs, as competition Schutzhund dogs, and as family
companions and protectors.
Since 1980 Ed has produced over 120 dog training videos
and DVD’s. He was a police K-9 handler for 10 years,
competed in several dog sports, including AKC obedience
and Schutzhund. In addition he has built one of the top
dog training supply businesses in the world.
If you go to the web site Leerburg.com you will see
that it has over 10,000 printed pages. The Leerburg Web
Discussion board has over 10,000 registered members
and over 120,000 posts in the archives. Learn to use our site
search function.
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Using Treats in your
Dog Training
Today we are going to talk about how using food rewards can
effect motivation while training your dog.
If your are interested I will be doing a video podcast of this
work and streaming it on the all-natural treat page on my web
site and on iTunes. What is nice about the video podcast is you
can actually see us working with dogs to explain the various
concepts.
Outside of normal feeding there are two applications for using
food with dogs:
1 - It can be used as a reward or motivator during
training and
2 - It can be used in toys to pass time while the dog is
alone.
Every dog, no matter the age, the breed, the sex or size
responds to two basic motivators:
1 - The pursuit of pleaser and
2 - The avoidance of displeasure
When food and treats are used properly they will become
a powerful tool for motivating your dog during training or
occupying your dogs’ time when you are gone and he is alone.
Most people do not give a lot of thought to the kind of treats
they use. They underestimate how importance it is to vary the
treats used in different applications. I must confess that I fell
into that category for many, many years. I thought cutting up
hot dogs was all that was needed for obedience training or
teaching my dog to track.
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Simon & Huey’s
Soft Training Treats
I started taking dog training seriously – back in the dark ages
of the 1960’s - when people like William Koehler and Winifred
Strickland were considered experts in the field. Using food to
train dogs back then was almost unheard of.
The argument was “If you train with food - at some point your
going to have to stop and then what will you do?”
Well dog training is light years ahead of where it was back then
and this question has been answer. Koehler and Strickland have
become the model-T ford of the training industry. They got you
around but it wasn’t pretty.
We have since learned that when it’s done properly motivating
a dog with food creates a dog that enjoys training, wants to
take part in the learning process and a dog that becomes a
problem solver. Using treats in your work also improves the
bond between dog and handler.
When a handler embraces the fact that he will use food in his
training he must then learn how to do this correctly. Marker
training (or clicker training) is hands down the best way. I have
written marker articles which are on my web site and my DVD’s
show how to do this.
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It was marker work that opened our eyes to the fact that
different dog treats can produce different results in our training.
I am going to talk about that later.
So just as importantly as learning how and when to use food in
your dog training is the question of what kind of food or treats
to use.
Back in the early 1980’s my DVD’s showed how to cut up small
pieces of hot dogs and use them as treats during obedience
training. There is nothing wrong with doing that today.
But in the past 25 years we have seen a huge improvement in
the number and quality of dog treats that are available.
Feeding dogs an all-natural diet has become popular because
people like myself recognized the fact that most commercial
dog food are crap. This was dramatically demonstrated with the
recent pet food recall that killed thousands of animals.
In fact, over the last 6 or 7 years the popularity of feeding an all-
natural diet has fueled the explosion of all-natural dog treats.
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15 years ago the multi colored grocery store dog biscuits that
are still sold in WalMart, K-Mart or the pet food warehouses
were pretty much the only option people had if they wanted a
dry food treat. Most dogs that have been fed a raw all-natural
diet will justifiably not eat them. God only knows what they are
really made from.
Zuke’s Mini Naturals
Different Treats for Different Jobs
The good news is today we have a number of different options
of all-natural dog treats. And you do need options for a number
of reasons:
1 - For one thing the treats my dogs love may not be the treats
your dog love.
2 - All treats carry a different motivational value to your dog. It’s
your job to constantly think about your dog’s reaction when
you use a specific food teat.
Learn to read your dog’s reaction to them. Some treats have so
high of a value they cause a dog to stop thinking. Some dogs
can’t focus when they know you have a high value treat on you.
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Treats with a value given to them
These high value treats cannot be used as a motivator on
complex tasks that requires a dog to think a lot. New trainers
would think that a difficult task would require the best treat
available – not so. A difficult task requires the dog to focus on
what he is doing and not focus on your food reward. Difficult
tasks need a mid level value treats.
3 - Some exercises require lower value treats. Trainers need to
be aware of these exercises and then be prepared to use the
treat with the correct value for the work your doing.
I will reward my dog for coming to me when on a walk. In that
circumstance I don’t mind if the treat is crunchy and take a
couple of seconds to eat (like our liver biscotti).
Liver Biscotti
On the other hand during marker training I want the treats to
be very easy to eat. I want them to be gone almost instantly so
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we can continue on with training. The softer treats like Simon
and Huey’s Soft Training Treats are perfect for this.
Simon & Huey’s Soft Training Treats
These are only a couple of examples. As you gain experience
you will find many other examples.
4 - Using Food Treats in Treat Toys
We sell a number of toys that can be loaded with dog treats.
These Everlasting treat toys and the Buster Food Cubes are the
best I have every seen. I have streaming video of them on my
web site.
Buster FoodCube
The size of the opening in a treat toy will determine what
food treat you buy. We will to use a trail mix in these toys. We
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will put some larger treats like the Plato or Zuke’s treats along
with some of the smaller treats like the Simon and Huey treats
to form a trail mix of treats in the toys. The smaller treats will
dribble out and reward the dog for trying while the larger treats
stay inside and peak the dog’s interest.
Everlasting Fun Ball
The dogs that are real food hounds quickly learn out how to
quickly unload a treat toys filled with small treats. These dogs
should only have large treats in them that are difficult to get
out.
The Sojo’s Grain-Free Treats, Liver Biscotti, and Yummy
Chummies, Zuke’s Jerky Naturals and Plato treats are good
choices for dogs that learn to quickly empty a treat toy.
Yummy Chummies
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The Simon and Huey treats and the Zuke’s Mini Naturals treats
are smaller and excellent for dogs that don’t have the super
high food drive. Once the dog learns how to empty a toy you
can often go to a more difficult treat.
Zuke’s Mini Naturals
Bottom line is I don’t want my dog to become discouraged, I
want them to be occupied. This is where paying attention to
detail pays off. It is a constant balancing act to find t he right mix
for the right toy for your dog.
If you ever watch any of the documentaries on zoos you will see
that the better zoos work hard to come up with different ways
of using food to stimulate the animals minds – they hide it in
logs or freeze it in big ice blocks or a million other things just to
keep the animals busy.
We can do the same kinds of things with our dogs – use your
imagination. If you have to leave your dog in a crate while your
at work during the day and you feed an all-natural diet (like you
should if you love your dog) why not take these everlasting toys
we sell and fill them with the dogs daily ration of hamburger
and freeze them over night. This will keep the dog busy for
hours.
So learning to use the various treat toys in different applications
can accomplish the same thing.
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5 - Some treats have a longer shelf life than others. This is
important if you carry treats in your coat pockets or bait bags.
Some if let sit too long will get slimy and moldy – but these are
often the treats that the dog can quickly eat, which is important
for marker training.
So the application of how you carry the treats and how long
you intend to have them in your pocket or bait bag needs to be
a consideration.
Snap-Open Bait Bag
6 - Some treats take longer to eat than others. How long it takes
a dog to eat a treat has a bearing on when and how it’s used.
Plato Smart Dog Treats
Always Try a New Treat Before Training With It
I always recommend letting a dog sample a treat as soon as
you get a new one. Don’t wait until you drive to training classes
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before letting the dog try a new dog treat. Check them out at
home first.
We try every treat we sell on our dogs before we make the
decision to sell the treat. But with this said just because a
product is labeled a dog treat does not mean that your dog
agrees with the labeling.
The first time you use a new treat dogs will play around with
it before they actually eat it. It’s like they need to convince
themselves that it is indeed a new dog treat. Many times once
the dog eats a few treats he decides their pretty darn good after
all and he downs them quicker.
If you made the mistake of trying to use a new treat as a reward
too soon during training you could find yourself standing
around getting frustrated while you waited for the dog to eat it.
This just breaks the flow if what your doing.
Our Criteria in selecting a dog treat
We are always looking for new healthy treats to use in our
training. When it comes to food rewards, variety is the spice of
life. Changing the food rewards keeps your dogs interest and
they become motivated to get a new and different tasty treat.
So when we hear of a new treat the first thing we do is review
the ingredients. While we are very particular in what we allow
our dogs to eat for their main diet – we are not as critical in our
dog treats. We will occasionally allow them a bit of doggy junk
food in the treats because it’s not like it’s a huge part of their
diet.
So if the ingredients look OK we buy some treats and use them
in our training. If our 5 or 6 dogs don’t like the treats we don’t
sell them.
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There is an article on our web site about feeding a raw all-
natural diet if you have an interest in learning about this.
Sojo’s Grain-Free Treats
My dog is not much of a chow hound
Some dog seem to be absolutely food crazy chow hounds
while others don’t seem to have much of an interest in food.
As a general rule every dog can have food drive. Some just have
way more than others. There are a lot of reasons why some
dogs don’t seem interested in food:
1 - Dogs must be hungry for a food reward to mean a lot to
them. So people who train with food should change their
feeding schedule so they feed the dog after training and not
before.
2 - Start training with a high value food reward, like pieces of
steak. This will often trigger the dog’s interest and motivate him
in training.
There is nothing wrong with cutting up steak leftovers into
small chunks and using them. Once the dog has learned that
food rewards are a part of training you can then change to
various all-natural treats that fit your training needs.
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3 - Some low food drive dogs are simply too fat – not an
uncommon problem with dog owners who love their dogs.
For over weight dogs cutting back on the daily food rations is
always a good idea.
Dogs should never be free fed and they should always be kept
thin. By thin I mean there should be a definition between their
rib cage and their loins.
Bottom line is a thin dog is a healthier dog that lives longer.
4 - Letting the dog go a day without food will increase almost
every dog’s food drive. As a general rule one would not want to
go more than two days without feeding.
In studies with rats there is a diminishing return on a rat’s
motivation and learning ability after going 3 days without food.
5 - Do not get in the habit of feeding the dog right after you
train, wait for 2 or 3 hours.
Some lazy dogs will pick up on the fact that right after training
they always get their nice big bowl of food. These dogs will not
try as hard for a food reward because they know that one way
or another they are going to get fed real soon.
It seems that this phenomenon goes away if there is more than
an hour break between training and feeding. So randomly
increasing and decreasing the feeding times works as long as
it’s an hour after training.
6 - Dogs that are well fed may have to learn that all food comes
from your hand. As I mentioned, we feed a raw all-natural diet.
You can read about this on my web site at http://leerburg.com/
feedingdogs.htm
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Grizzly NuTreats
I have a young male that did not have a ton of food drive so I
changed his diet to all hamburger and let him go a day without
food. Then for 4 or 5 days the only food he got was hamburger
from my hand during marker training.
Now remember – when you fast a dog for a day and then bring
out the hamburger – the meat is going to be a high value treat
for the dog. So you are going to see the dog be a little more
hectic than normal. That’s OK. Our goal here is more to teach
the dog to appreciate the value of food treats than to train a
complicated task. So we only ask the dog to do very simple
things that he already knows – like a hand touch or a sit or
down.
During this initial work if he zoned out and did not pay
attention I simply took him by the collar, without saying a word,
put him in his dog crate and walked away for 3 or 4 minutes.
That experience did wonders for his food drive. After a week
we went back to normal feedings – always several hours after
training.
By the way this same concept applies to a dog’s toys. Teaching
a dog that he only plays with toys when you give them to him
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and after your play you always take them away builds drive or
motivation for toys, which results in toys being able to be used
as motivators in training.
7 - If your dog blows you off during your training another
approach is to simply stop, take the dog by his collar and put
him in his dog crate. Then go get another dog (we are very
lucky because we have an unlimited supply of food hounds)
and let the second dog eat the first dogs’ daily bowl of food
right in front of the crate.
Don’t for a second think this doesn’t say volumes to the dog
your training. You only need to do this a couple of times before
he gets the picture.
A caveat here is that you should get in the habit of feeding
these dogs inside their dog crates. This will eliminate the
possibility of dog fights.
All-Natural Treats vs Meat Treats
You will probably find that cooked meat or raw meat cut into
small chunks are your dogs favorite food treats. Using them
in training is great, but you may also get to the point where
having to cut up meat every day is more than you care to do.
This is where the all-natural treats come in.
Cut up steak
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What we have found our dogs like it when we make a trail mix
of dog treats. We will put pieces of cut up meat, pieces of string
cheese and several kinds of all-natural treats in a plastic tub our
fridge. We fill our bait bag from this tub.
When we go out we randomly select a treat from this trail mix.
The variety of this random selection builds interest in our dogs
because they never know what the next treat reward is going
to be.
What Size of a Treat to Use
Have you ever watched a dog eat a piece of steak? Unless the
piece of meat is huge they take it in their mouth and virtually
swallow it.
I find myself thinking, “Hey dummy why didn’t you chew that a
little and make it last a little longer?”
The fact is dogs derive pleasure from the physical act of eating.
Your dog would get more pleasure out of cutting the same
hunk of steak into 30 pieces than if he ate the entire piece in
one swallow.
The correct size of a food treat is the size of an eraser on a pencil.
We want our dog to eat a treat as quickly as possible so we can
move on with training. Small treats also allow for multiple treats
being given one right after the other in sustained training.
This is where you will feed one treat after another to extend
duration in an exercise (like the down stay).
So, even though the treats you purchase may be a good size
when they come out of the bag you should break them up into
smaller pieces. Perfect examples are the Zuke’s treats or the
yummy chummy treats.
Some of the larger ones can be broke into about 10 smaller
pieces. As I break mine up I always wonder how many people
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don’t do that and simply waste 90% of the value of these treats
by feeding the entire chuck.
Vary the amounts and placement of reward to
affect drive
Small treats allow trainers to “JACKPOT” their treats. This is where
they will occasionally reward the dog with a number of treats
all at one time (hence the name jackpotting). This can be a real
motivator to the dog who really does something good. It’s on
the same principle as winning a jackpot on a slot machine.
If you are familiar with marker training you know that
placement of the food reward is an important part of the
learning process. By this I mean if you are training the dog to a
hand touch – the reward is always placed on the hand that your
dog touched with his nose.
When trainers have a lower drive dog, simply making the dog
move to get a reward will often increase motivation. Making it
jump up a little will increase drive. So on these kinds of dogs
don’t just stick the food in its mouth. Make him work for it.
Varying Timing on a Reward
I would like to take a minute to talk about how timing of food
rewards can affect performance. This will not apply to pet
owners but rather to people who intend to compete in various
dog sports.
By “timing” I don’t mean the concept of how to mark or click a
behavior in marker training within 1 ½ seconds.
Rather I want to pass on an interesting concept that is seen on
studies with training rats. If a rat is trained to run a maze and it
is rewarded half way through the maze with a food reward and
then that food reward with held – the rat will run the last half
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of the maze quicker than when it normally gets the reward half
way through.
Now how does this relate to your dog training? Well think about
it.
An agility routine is 30 seconds long, a Schutzhund obedience
routine is over 15 minutes long, and a Mondio ring routine is 45
minutes long.
If you compete in dog sports – can you wrap your mind around
this concept and experiment with ways to improve your dog’s
performance. I can’t do it for you. This has to come from the
trainers and how they read their dog.
Use Treats to Play / Prey Drive
Prey drive is the drive to chase and tug. Trainers can use a dog’s
prey drive as a reward in training.
Some dogs are born with a great deal of prey drive and some
dogs have very little prey drive. Some dogs can have prey drive
but as soon as they think there is food around the prey drive
goes away. Morgi the corgy (one of house dogs) is a perfect
example of this. She has nice prey drive but she is also a chow
hound. The second she thinks we have a food reward her prey
drive goes away.
In our video podcast of this work we demonstrate with a young
puppy how quick movement with food in the hand triggers the
dogs prey drive. Keep in mind that this work is not using food as
a reward but rather to build drive.
Putting wad of high value food treats in a sock and teaching
the dog to play tug with the food sock also goes a long way
towards teaching low prey drive dogs that have food drive to
play tug.
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Now these methods will not work for people who were to do
one of the biting sports where a dog must have serious prey
drive but this will work for people who want to compete in
agility or obedience and use a prey tug game as a reward.
You are Criteria for Using a Treat
So in the end every trainer needs to evaluate what their criteria
is for training. I recommend making a list. Then break these
exercises down into training steps. Once they have done this
they need to give serious thought to how they can use food
as a reward. Should they use a high value food reward or a
medium value food reward?
They also need to know how their dog reacts to various food
rewards. This can only be determined by constantly watching
your dog and thinking of his response to what you’re asking
him to do. No one can tell you what to do with your dog – you
need to figure it out yourself. Make notes and think about it
right after training.
Be prepared to experiment with food treats to learn how to
control Motivation. If you’re a new trainer start by looking for
the extremes – look for the extreme high value treats – there
can be more than one. With experience you will learn to
recognize subtleties of difference if how a dog reacts to mid-
level treats. But again – make notes.
Conclusion
In closing, I would recommend that you visit our video podcasts
on itunes or watch the streaming videos on our web site. I
always post the audio podcasts before the video podcast.
If you go to my website I am constantly adding little video clips
so you can get a better idea of the products. A perfect example
of this will be in our treat section. After listening to this podcast
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it will mean something to you when you see the size of the
treat, when you see how many smaller sections the larger treats
can be broken into and it will mean something when you see
how hard or how soft a treat is – because the dogs can eat the
softer treats quicker
We are in the process of setting up box combinations of treats
where you can save a little money by buying a BOX SET of
treats. You will be able to learn what treats work best for your
training and your dogs.
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