Food Rewards Scale & Dog Training

All work must be paid for. If you wouldn’t do a job for free, you shouldn’t expect your dog to preform for free either. This paper is going to discuss what I refer to as the ‘scale of rewards’ that will help you figure out your dog’s pay grade. For the duration of this paper we will be discussing FOOD based reward system.

Pennies, Dollars, Twenties, Hundreds.

In training we refer to food rewards as low, mid or high value rewards. As a general rule we want our dogs to work for the lowest value treat and save the higher value when we really need that extra motivation (Think of it like paid overtime) You should be trying with lower value and moving up the scale as needed.

LOW VALUE

Dry dog food that you feed your dog is the lowest value food because it is readily available for your dog multiple times a day. Dog Food = Pennies

            If you can get your dog to work for it’s dog food, that is amazing! I highly encourage you to use their food as part of training. Puppies/younger dogs will usually be more willing to work for a low value treat (because they’re in that all food is great phase of life). Basic biscuit dog treats – think milk bones – can usually be lumped in with dog food just because its basically the same texture, just bigger.

MID-VALUE

Moist treats found at the local pet store are mid-value treats mainly because they’re different than the typical food your dog has. Anything new is always going to increase in value for your dog. This are great starting treats especially if you are teaching your dog a new command.

            These may be the starting point of the reward system for older or picker dogs or dogs who have less food motivation. Think of it this way – you’re more likely to care about spare dollar bills you find in your vehicle than pennies. So, I think of these as your dog being paid in dollars.

HIGH VALUE Part 1

High Value rewards are going to be treats your dog doesn’t see every day. I’ve found the best high value treats are meat based such as freeze dried raw dog food, jerky treats, dehydrated animal organs – beef lung, liver, chicken hearts, etc. I’ve also noticed that these treats are less “known” by most pet people, its more of a trade secret for dog handlers and trainers. I sell several kinds of these at the kennel if anyone is interested in them. Freeze-dried treats = $20s

HIGH-VALUE Part 2

I divided high value into two parts because everything has a spectrum. Generally, a rule of thumb is that the highest value treat to a dog is something their human has. Human food in my experience is the highest value you can get. Some people are wary about feeding their dogs human food, but it is safe in small quantities (depending on your dog!) The entire point of it being high value is that they shouldn’t be getting these treats all the time. Human food = $100s

Human foods to feed your dog in training:

·      String Cheese

·      Boiled Chicken (light to no seasonings)

·      Beef jerky

·      Hot dogs (minimal sodium, turkey dogs are best)

·      Leftover meats (light on pork for smaller breeds)

High value rewards should be used sparingly. Some dogs are super picky and need them to be the starting block for training. If your dog is like this – keep your training sessions short and precise in order to keep them interested.

When to implement the Rewards Scale for your dog?

Again, the goal is for your dog to work for lower rewards more than higher rewards. As dogs become more stimulated (think more stress inducing situations) they will need more motivation to want to work.

 If your dog will only perform a command with the highest value reward in the living room, what on earth will you use to pay them for working in higher stress conditions like a park or pet store?

Your home should be the least stressful, lowest stimulating location for your dog. They live there, this is normal for them. So they should work for a low level rewards in this environment. The exception to this – and there’s always exceptions – are older dogs, low food driven dogs or less biddable/work driven dog breeds. A shih tzu will need more motivation than a lab to perform work.

Training should be completed inside or in a somewhat sterile environment where they are comfortable. In this area, your dog should perform the command successfully 90-100% of the time before you move to a new area to train. As you travel outside to practice a command, because for a dog outside is FULL of stimuli – you may need to increase to a higher reward on the scale. Save the highest value rewards for high stress training – going to the vet, in a crowd of people, teaching more complex training commands.

It’s also smart to utilize high value rewards to commands you want to emphasize. Recall/Come is a super important command that can save your dog’s life – it never hurts to emphasize come with a high value reward every time to build more of a payment/motivation system with your dog. Something super easy like sit should be the lowest value or even praise reward system. (Praise reward systems are not covered in this paper)

Life is like a mixed bag of dog treats….or whatever Forrest Gump said

Once your dog knows their initial command, one of my favorite ways to keep them enticed in a training session is to mix up a treat bag of all the different reward levels. I’ll have a bowl (if we’re inside) or a treat pouch with dry dog food, small buffalo training treats, and freeze dried treats or beef jerky all together. I don’t know what I’m grabbing, my dog doesn’t know what I’m grabbing – but it keeps the dog interested. This is also a good way to lower the “price” of the command. For example if a dog is learning the heel command and needed cheese to really want to do it, a mixed bag may have them working for cheese one rep, a milk bone the next, and back to a hot dog on the last one.

A mixed bag can also help if your dog is getting bored at the end of your training session. I always recommend keeping sessions short with more successes than failures. You should also train based on the dog in front of you. An English mastiff is not going to be interested in training as long as a Malinois or Border Collie. No matter what make training interesting & fun for your dog!

If you have any questions feel free to contact me!

Happy Training  - KB