There's always been some controversy over whether
you should give treats.
Now, some people say, "Of course! Give the dog treats
so he'll obey you. After all, you won't get his attention
if you don't give him anything he enjoys." On the other
hand, some other people will say, "No, don't give the
dog treats! He'll be only obeying you for the food."
There is truth to both the opinions stated above. The
dog does need some incentive to obey you, right? But
also, what if they dog does begin to work only for the
food? What then? If he's not hungry and doesn't really
want the food, then he doesn't have any reason to obey
you!
So should you use dog treats? The answer is YES, but
in moderation . Don't give the dog a biscuit every single
time he obeys you; instead, sometimes just praise him
excessively instead. Also, don't make the "prize" too
big or you'll be overfeeding him. For example, break
a biscuit in half or even cut it into three pieces so
you're not feeding your dog too much when you train
him.
Here's another idea for training young puppies. Don't
feed them biscuits at all – just use adult dog food
pellets. The pellets are big enough to be a treat for
the young puppy's tiny mouth, but small enough that
it won't overfeed the puppy.
Another very important point I'd like to make is that
you shouldn't train your dog to obey you only for the
food as a reward. Although you might not consciously
be doing this, it's easy to slip into the habit of just
rewarding your dog with a treat every single time he
does anything remotely good.
Instead, you want your dog to think of you as the
"strong master," or the "alpha" over him, so that he
obeys you because you're the master and because he wants
to please you, not just because you have a treat. You
can do this by praising him a lot in a high voice when
he does something good and in a deep, "you're in trouble"
voice when he does something bad. You want him to distinguish
between the voices and figure out that a high voice
means "good" and low means "bad" and whenever you do
the low voice, you are not pleased with him.
I hope this article has helped you in training your
dog. I hope you have much success in developing a well-behaved,
friendly dog!
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