Dog training: Treats or Praise?

Question

My family and I are teaching our "old "dog (only 3 yrs) new tricks. Or I should say more obedience. He knows the basics, sit, lay down, come, crate, go. He's not too good with sit stay but we are working on that. Anyway some of us train him with treats and some of us are training him with praise. Good boy, thatta boy, lots of pets and love when he obeys. He responds to both but Of course treats are his favorite but I feel in an emergency when we need him to obey immediately we may not have a treat with us. Is either or both ok to do?

Answer 1

Treats are best when you are first showing your dog what you want him to do. But you have to start weaning him off the treats once you know that he knows what is expected of him.

Example of weaning dog off treats:
Sit, treat, sit, treat, sit, treat, sit, treat, sit, treat, sit, treat.
Sit, sit, treat, sit, sit, treat, sit, sit, treat.
Sit, sit, sit, treat, sit, sit, sit, treat.
Sit, sit, sit, good boy, sit, sit, sit, treat
Sit, sit, sit, good boy, sit, sit, sit, good boy.
See, now you've weaned him off food and he still responds with praise.

BTW, there's no such thing as, "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". :) I've had dogs as old as 9 yrs. old in my obedience classes.

spazrats
http://spazrats.tripod.com
Dog Obedience Instructor with 30+ years experience. Presently working in a CKC registered dog club.

Answer 2

Don't worry, you are doing a great job. Praise and treats are an excellent way to reward you dog for doing well. If you are afraid of him not responding when there is no food, start minimizing the amount of times you use treats as a reward. Also, make sure that when training with him, you do not have the food visible. That way, he doesn't know that there is a definite treat reward. By hiding the food treats during training and giving them randomly (switching between food and praise) your dog will eventually do the tricks without knowing there is a food reward in the end.

I do want to remind you that when teaching a new trick, food rewards are the best. When he starts getting it down, start using the praise more and the treats less. Good luck!

Answer 3

either is fine to get your dog to learn to begin with but then he should be weaned off the treats. you are absolutly right, in an emergency and you don't have treats what are you going to do. your family needs to sit down and come up with a consistant method of training or he will learn to only repsond to the person who has food. you can start with treats and praise. then start slowly not giving the treats and just the praise. you dog should sit for praise, not just sit take a treat and then get up. sounds like you have a good head about things, now just come to an agreement with the rest of your family. good luck.

Answer 4

We train with treats, and then after a while, she got used to doing the command without treats. Just do it often, so right when you say the word, the dog knows it right away, and would do it right away. For instance, for the first couple of weeks, we always used treats for sit. Now I can take her on a walk, and test her by making her stop and sit. She listens, even without the treats now.

Answer 5

a bit of both is best for everything he does right give him a big praise and 1 treat.
if you want to teach him to stay get him to sit first and repeatedly say the word stay with somebody standing behind him holding him by the collar and slowly letting go of it and if he tries to move before you tell him to come catch his collar and put him in the sit position again and if he sits all the way through until you tell him to come give him a big praise and a treat for it.
it worked with me so it should work with you . good luck with it

Answer 6

Both are okay, but too many treats are bad because alot of treats have fat in them that shouldn't be given too much. I'd stick with praise because he needs to learn how to do it w/o a treat.

Lets take the command "sit" for example. The dogs name will be Rover.

You: Rover, "sit:"
Rover:-doesn't sit-
You: Give him a stern no, and tell him sit, and push down on his rear. If he sits, praise him w/o treats.

Answer 7

I switch back and forth with my dogs, when we train sometimes they get a treat and sometimes they get verbal praise.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

Well some time or another he will have to learn without the treats u cant let a dog "ALWAYS" rely n treats to do tricks

Answer 10

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