Two days before i was training a couple dogs with a good friend. We were working on the original stuff, you recognise, sit, down, come when called, when he asked me a question when it comes to treats.
He asked, “jason, why do you give the dog some rewards? ” my answer is simple. Because if you recompense the dog well, they do better work for you, recompense them poorly or not at all and you get lack luster work.
Think of it in this way, if your paycheck came every 6 months instead of weekly or two, would you be a hard worker or will you tend to cut corners? Be honorable. I recognise i would tend to begin off outstanding but as bills piled up i would disappointingly unsuccessful with the fact that i was only get compensated twice a year for hard work i am doing day after day.
Your dog doesn’t see this any differently. They love you. They want to work for you. They deserve to be compensated well. Now i am not saying go out, purchase a box of milkbones and just begin tossing them to your dog without having any motive. Rather the opposite. Original, i dislike milkbones. Second, the dog has to do something for the paycheck.
When i am starting a dog in obedience the dog is compensated extremely well. You could say that i treat them like a wealthy kid who gets anything she wants. That is until the dog learns what we are working on. The recompense doesn’t get worse, it just happens fewer oftentimes. At this point the dog is motivated for the paycheck and genuinely doesn’t care that it only comes every 3rd or 4th time rather than every single time.
I use tug toys and balls to reward in addition. Again, the rewards come oftentimes and are such a lot fun for both myself and the dog. Why would i not want to have fun training right?
Whatsoever paycheck you give your dog, ball, squeaky squirrel, chicken liver, a simple pat or tug toy, it makes since to honour them for a job which was properly done. I am not a fan of totally becoming rid of the reward either. It stays, eternally, why? Because my dog’s happiness means a lot to me. Why would i want to take the fun out of training. It’s absurd and even the most competitively trained dog out there can be rewarded always. Just ask any narcotics search team. Do they reward the dog every time they find drugs? Yup. Do they say, “good job dog here is a milk bone? ” nope. They play the dogs best-loved game and show them how proud they are of the work they did.
