DOG TRAINING REWARDS

 

 

Donning a wetsuit and doing what your dog loves best is a very smart way to reward and bond with your dog…

What are dog training rewards…?

It may sound obvious but a reward is something your dog values (and they don’t care how much it cost!).  This means they might prefer the centre of your kitchen roll holder or a cardboard box to the expensive toy you have recently bought, or, as above, a swim in their local rock pool with dad.

The reward will also have to be valuable enough to ensure your dog is focused on you, regardless of what other distractions are present and so you will need to think about the level of reward to use and in what sort of environment.  For example, when training indoors you will usually need lower level rewards than when training in a busy outdoor environment.

Types of reward …

You!
This is the most important reward which you should wish your dog to value and the good news is that it’s free…

Verbal praise
Again, this falls under the ‘you’ reward category and if your dog values your praise then this can be used to a great advantage to both tell your dog how well he or she is doing and also to keep their attention.

Physical praise
Again, this is a ‘you’ reward so it’s worth figuring out what your dog likes.  If he or she  avoids your hands on any of his body he/she is not enjoying it so please stop…and find his favourite spots for your caresses, it might be a tickle or scratch on the rump or under his tummy or gentle ear rubbing, etc.

Food
Always use the lowest value rewards that your dog is willing to work for –  I know it sounds stingy but, as above, you need to save the best for really challenging situations and then you can be very generous when your dog does as asked.

Use a really good variety of food treats to keep your dog guessing as to what he or she might receive next.  Variety and keeping your canine friend guessing and excited about what’s coming next is a key point to keeping your dog keen to be with you when you’re using food as a reward.

A word of warning

Please note that if you are using human food please ensure you are aware of which foods are poisonous to dogs.  One of the items many people may not be aware of is that in reduced sugar products xylitol is used and that is very poisonous to dogs – please see previous article.

How to use the food …

Present the food in different ways.  As above, you need to be more exciting to the dog and the more inventive you can be with rewards, the more successful you will be. Just giving a treat from your hand is not the most exciting way to reward your dog.  One game dogs usually love is to search for food so you can teach the ‘Find-it’ command which opens the door to lots of fun and games for both food and toy searches.

Toys and Games

Keep two or three special toys for training – these should be put away at the end of training where the dog does not have access to them.  This way the toys should keep their appeal wherever you are and whatever distractions may be about.

You, of course, need to find which toys and games your dog likes best.  Some dogs will be happy to play with the same toys each time, with others you will need to vary them and so keep a better variety of special toys.

Some dogs, sadly, may not yet have learned how to play with you.  I get quite a few owners who say their dogs will not play, or that they will play at home but not out on a walk, but I have never yet met a dog which I cannot get to engage in some form of play with their owners when outdoors – please see my one to one page for more information about private training or come along to classes where you will also learn about how to play with your dog.

There are lots of great dog toys out there on the market and one of my favourites (and the dogs’ favourites) is the
Fun With Fido range – please see the previous article.

Also a firm favourite with my current puppy is the fairly robust ‘Shake A’ range of soft squeak toys (do not leave alone with your dog but keep for special play, as noted above).  My pup loves the Shake a Fox and Shake a Pheasant, amongst other items in her play box and personal rucksack! See Amazon.

Games to teach your dog…

There are of course lots of games you can play with your dog, such as:

• Back to the ‘you’ reward – you can run and bounce around and use an exciting voice and run away from your dog to get his or her attention. So long as they don’t learn bad habits such as nipping at you or your clothes or jumping up at you or other people, this play is perfectly acceptable and a good way to get focus.  Even if you can’t move too much you can still experiment with your voice to see what gets and holds your dog’s attention the best and what makes his or her tail wag.
• Retrieving a toy (but please, not lots of repeated uncontrolled ball-throwing as this can over excite your dog as well as damage joints)
• Tug and Leave – this, of course, is only for dogs which are not possessive over toys but the majority of dogs love to play tug and so it’s worth finding out how to play this safely and how to get an instant ‘leave.’
• All training should also be an enjoyable game for your dog and so heel work, sit, down, recall, recall when in chase mode, leave, etc, etc, can all be taught as games so that your dog will think he or she is playing with you but you are actually training them without them even knowing it.
• There are also lots of other games and activities you can become involved in such as agility, obedience, working trials, gundog trials. However, if you choose any of these activities please make sure it is something that your dog will enjoy doing and that your dog’s basic training and good manners are not compromised either during training or at competitions.  Whichever activity you may take up, you will still need to know how to play with your dog and keep their attention.

Freedom

Letting your dog out of the house into the garden, to go for walks, and letting your dog off lead are great rewards which are often overlooked.

You can make use of these opportunities as part of the daily training by asking for an action such as sit, down, or waiting quietly before letting your dog out or off-lead.

If you would like some one to one help on any of the training aspects above please get in touch to discuss how I may help you or see my one to one page on my website.

You may also be interested in my article on teaching your dog to retrieve.

 

Happy training.

 

Sally Bartlett
www.co-operativecanines.co.uk