D is for Diet

...the training DIET that is :). The rewards you use during training has a huge impact on your dog's motivation, focus, and eagerness to learn. Most dogs are food motivated and using food allows us to do a lot of repetitions in a short timeframe with a higher rate of reinforcement.

There are SO many different treats out on the market for you pet, it's hard to know where to start. At my house I feed a RAW diet so I am pretty picky about what is going into my dogs, but luckily there are still tons of options for all-natural dog treats. The type of reward is extremely important in any reward-based training program, and there are generally two groups: high value and low value.

High Value Vs. Low Value

High value treats are such things as hot dogs, meat, cheese, etc. Usually they are soft and super stinky :), but it's something that your dog can't seem to get enough of no matter what is going on in the world around him. Rookie's highest value treat is the Lickety Stik (any flavor). I pull that thing out and his eyes get wide with excitement! Every dog has a different taste and what one dog finds extremely exciting, another may not. You will have to try different types of treats in different environments in order to find out what your dog prefers the most.

These are all usually considered high value :).

Low values are such things as regular dog food and dry treats (like milk bones). I generally don't use low value treats in my training, well for one because I don't feed kibble, but also because I want my dog to ALWAYS be excited about learning. Using low value treats too much may significantly decrease your dog's motivation to the point that they stop performing all together since the reward is not motivating enough.

As a general rule every dog has food drive (they have to eat to survive) but some just have way more than others. If your dog doesn't seem to be interested in your treats (make sure you try several varieties!) you can try changing their feeding schedule to feeding after the training sessions. Also check to see how much you are feeding, if your dog is a little on the heavy side being satiated can affect their food motivation.

Just For The Taste of Reward

I like to keep my dogs guessing so I change up the variety of food rewards for training sessions. I make sure to still use something I know they will work for, but the variety seems to keep them interested and adds an edge to their motivation because it's not always the same old thing session after session.

These pieces are a bit larger than normal because
Rookie has a giant mouth and his treats get lost
in his cheeks :)

As you might guess, you'll go through lots of treats during a training session so how does that affect their regular diet and weight? You'll want to make sure to keep the training treat size small, for my dogs (medium to large size) I generally make them a fingernail size or pencil eraser size. If you have a small dog, you'll want to make them as small as you possible can; your dog's stomach will fill up much faster than mine!

Quick tip - avoid using treats that crumble on the floor, otherwise your dog will spend more time sniffing up the crumbs than actually working with you each time you reward him.

Using the right type of reward for your dog will help him stay motivated to work. What treats do your dogs like best?