Training Treats for Dogs

Yes! Treats are a fantastic way to train your dog and are a form of positive reinforcement to teach commands and motivate your dog. With all treats, having a balance is important and there should be a difference between high value and low value treats. Low value, smaller treats can be given as a reward more frequently, whereas larger, high value rewards are rewarded less often. Using treats as a reward is the easiest way to train your dog and motivate them to continue the behaviours or commands that you reward.

Whilst using treats may be the most simple way, you are able to train dogs without treats. In some cases, this has even led to commands being up faster, so it’s not impossible. Most experts would recommend starting your dog off with treats, then slowly reducing the number of treats as they learn commands.

However, if you want to train your dog without treats, there are many methods. This can include brushing your dog, giving verbal praise, cuddling, and other rewards such as a new or favourite toy to give your dog when completing the correct behaviour.

Alternatively, you can use a portion of their daily food just to be used during training or have an associated noise such as a clicker when the right behaviour is used.

It is normal to give your dog more treats during training, but typically they should make up no more than 10% of your dog’s daily calorie intake. This rule is the same for both adult dogs and puppies and applies to both high reward treats and lower value treats. This is another reason to give your dog a portion of their regular food as a treat during training.