Food as a Reward in Dog Training

Food as a Reward in Dog Training: How to ween your dog off of his food reward

Whether you have trained your dog a fair amount or will be new to the idea of dog training totally, you'll probably be somewhat familiar with the use of food as a reward for your dog when training him. It's not because it's fair that he gets something in exchange for performing. Giving food as a reward basically reinforces his association with the fact that doing a task correctly means good things for him like a treat. He will not only attempt to stay focused again next time when practicing that command, but will also make sure he's attentive in the future for other commands.

However, the negative part of rewarding your dog for doing a certain task correctly will be that he will likely expect it every time. He also might just want a treat and not listen to your commands.

Therefore, a really good tip when dog training with the implementation of a reward treat will be slowly removing treats as a reward over time. The fact remains, dogs don't really need a food treat as a reward to learn. However, since dogs really do like food, giving food as a reward to the dog becomes an easy way to keep his attention. But let's get back to slowly removing the food as a reward. Basically, you want to start increasing the number of commands that you give him before you extend a treat as a reward. Even from the start, it's probably better not to give him a reward after every right response your dog gives to each command. Yes, as a puppy that might be the best way.

Eventually, you should did to the point where you do not reward your dog with a treat until he responds correctly to your commands three to five times or so. In other words, you might tell him to sit three times before you give him a treat on the last time. Further down the road you will simply give him food rewards after every five commands correctly answered....and so on.

It should be noted that you should never reward your dog by him taking action after you say a command more than once. For example, don't reward him if he finally sits down after you say “sit, sit ,sit”. You'll be rewarding him for responding after you saying the command three times or more. If he doesn't take action after the first time you say “sit”, then you simply need to walk away to the other side of the room or do something else that shows you have discontinued that particular training time. You can then come back and try again. You may also help them set by gently pushing his butt down after you say “sit” one-time assuming he does not respond on his own.

Soon this tip we are giving should help your dog to respond to a command fairly quickly. Of course, you'll get various benefits from this tip including saving some money but probably the most beneficial reason will be that he responds correctly because he gets pleasure from your pleasure of him doing well ( he sees this through your loving praise you give them after a well done response or training session).

On a related note, before you read any further, it is always nice to have good free information so we strive to offer that here. However, if you want to get professional advice then you might check out this link dog training reviews for good information. There is no way we can top professional dog expert's guidance. We personally like this source, Secrets to Dog Training.