dog daily photo – make it yummy!
By goodbear
Tags: animals, border collies, daily photo, dog training, dogs, pets, photography, tucson
Category: 365 photo, border collies, daily photo, dogs, pets, photo blog, photography
training tip time!
for our dog daily photo new year’s post, i mentioned we would have some training tips from time to time.
today’s training tip isn’t a set of instructions, but more a helpful tid bit to help make the most of your dog training. “tid bit” being the key word!
i have had the opportunity to work closely with some great dog trainers here in tucson. each of them subscribe to the “positive reinforcement” methods. so many great successes with challenging obedience training, fearful dogs, trick training. i, myself, love training with treats. today we talk about high value treats and how they will help you make the most of your training!
the more challenging the training, or the more distracting the surroundings, the more delicious your training treats should be. you may have seen someone in obedience class struggling to get a dog to sit as they say, “he always does it at home.” when a dog is out of his comfort zone, he will need a higher value reward to keep his focus.
along those lines, it is important NOT to use super, ultra-delicious treats when you’re working at HOME. save the irresistible stuff for the more challenging locations.
when i work with my dogs on their day to day training at home, i just use dehydrated beef livers from petsmart, but if the dogs are learning something challenging at agility, or they’re prone to being more interested in the quail around the agility course than my directions, i take something that is higher in value to them, like small chunks of cheddar cheese, chunks of turkey burger or tid bids of roast chicken.
giving your dog the super, ultra-delicious treats at home will decrease their value.
here are some treats many dogs LOVE when they’re home, but won’t really perform for when they are in a new, or stressful environment:
kibble, carrots, bananas, mushrooms, crackers
you’ll want a treat that doesn’t crumble, because they will be more interested in sniffing the ground for crumbs than they will be in your next command.
so see pickles up there in the photo? i’m holding a dehydrated beef liver above the fish eye lens. i swear, that dog would do anything for food. she is the hungriest girl i’ve ever met!
well, thanks for taking the time to read the blog. i hope your training is going well. i know there are many people with new dogs here in town. have fun with your training!
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Food is the great motivator.
When we were training Bailey, the trainer asked us to get a “rich” treat; something she doesn’t always get but goes bonkers over.
I brought out a head of lettuce and much against the trainers chagrin, Bailey got crazy with anticipation and worked for that lettuce leaf.