Dog treats are the best way to get your dog to listen to you. I’ve rescued and rehabilitated enough dogs to say that some of the most feral dogs only got comfortable with the idea of human interaction once a treat was involved. So if you’re looking to train your dog with treats, there are a couple of things you’ve to keep in mind. The last thing you would want to happen is you overdo it and your dog ends up addicted and wants nothing else besides treats. I’ve spent quite a few years training dogs and I can say for sure that as long as you keep the following tips in mind when training them, you should be good to go.Additionally, considering dog-friendly treats and rewards during training sessions ensures that your furry friend not only learns commands effectively but also associates the training experience with positive reinforcement, strengthening the bond between you and your canine companion.
REWARD WHEN CALM
One of the biggest mistakes you could make when rewarding your dog with a treat is doing so when they’re still super excited. I’ve made this mistake quite a few times and it has always resulted in a dog that is hyperactive all the time because they think doing so will get them rewarded. You should always wait for your dog to calm down before rewarding them with dog treats as this way you wouldn’t be reinforcing the hyperactive behavior. Instead, you’ll be teaching them that staying calm will result in getting a treat!
REMOVE DISTRACTIONS
Sometimes you may notice that your dog is not interested in the treat you’re trying to give them. Before ruling out the problem being the treat itself, you might want to take a look around your environment to see if perhaps there is something distracting your dog which is causing them to not be interested in the dog treats. If you’re outside, chances are your dog may be distracted by the cars passing by. If so, you might want to find a quieter area to train them. If you’re indoors the TV noise might be the cause of the distraction. Therefore, these are all things you need to keep in mind when training your dog with dog treats.
VARIETY OF TREATS
If you’ve ruled out distractions to be the cause for the lack of interest in the dog treats, it’s probably time to actually blame the treats itself. I know several dogs who would rather starve than eat beef-flavored dog treats. But once I switched to a different flavor like chicken or duck, it’s like they’re a whole different person. Suddenly they’re following all the commands I make them do and I’ve got their full attention. You should experiment with different flavors of dog treats in order to find the one that gives you the most attention from your dog.
NO BRIBES
You should know that you shouldn’t overdo rewarding your dogs with treats as then they’ll always be expecting it. Once they’re already addicted to getting dog treats and you abruptly stop giving it to them, it could make them super mad and they could even nip at you until you give it to them. Therefore, it’s really important to make sure you get them used to not always receiving treats early on to prevent them from getting addicted to them.
MAINTAIN WEIGHT
When training a dog with treats, they’re often getting quite a lot of them in order to properly train them to follow the commands. Because of this, dogs can often gain a lot of weight really quickly from consuming a ton of dog treats. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you give them weight-friendly treats or treats in small quantities to prevent them from becoming overweight.
