Treat Training

It's become common practice to use treats in training dogs over the past few decades, and IMO, that trend has led to some problems with our human-canine relationships. Personally, I have never used treats in training any of my dogs or those of my clients. While my dogs aren't always perfect, they have always been clear on their role in our home. We have never had any serious behavioral problems, disinterest in "listening", disobedience around distractions, fighting, biting, or unhappy dogs. The point of this post is not to condemn using treats, but to offer some thoughts for consideration outside this popular training box.

To start, using treats involves a negotiation - do 'request A" and get "treat B". While food can certainly be a motivator for many dogs, any dog working for food IS NOT working for the owner. Over time, this gumball machine approach can lead to a loss of respect in the eyes of a dog. When respect diminishes or is lacking, a host of behavioral and reliability problems often arise.

And what about those dogs not motivated by food or treats? Do you go down the "use better treats" or "don't feed your dog for 12 hours before training" path? Well, if better treats or a hungrier dog helps, how do you things will go when it's time to train around distractions or time to wean away from treats? Not well! I've received calls for behavioral assistance that other trainers declined because the dog wasn't "food motivated". These dogs learned just fine without food. And using food for addressing problem behaviors, in my experience, simply teaches clever dogs that misbehaving gets the treats out.

Last year I watched a lecture series by John Rogerson that discussed how using treats to deal with fear issues in dogs probably makes the problems worse. The argument being, classical conditioning should start by pairing a neutral stimulus with one that elicits a previously conditioned response - bell rings (neutral no natural response) with food (salivation conditioned response). When food is the only tool in the box, some trainers begin mixing a non-neutral stimulus (one that causes fear / anxiety) with food. This can actually reinforce a dog's fears because they begin associating food with the presence of something they fear.

Perhaps one of the reasons for the popularity of treat training is that it is viewed as "harmless". This belief has evolved treat training as a default standard for the do-it-yourself camp, books, internet, and (unfortunately) many trainers with limited exposure to diverse methodologies. I would argue that treat training is not always "harmless'. As noted through the examples above, it can set you up for a poor relationship with your dog, provide little reliability and safety around distractions, leave non-food driven dogs out in the dark, make many behavioral issues worse, and carries nutritional and obesity considerations as well.

My purpose is not to condemn treats altogether. I always mention to my clients that for many dogs, they CAN serve a useful purpose in early teaching and helping dogs understand positions (sit, down, etc.). I do not believe treats are necessary, however, and they DO NOT TEACH dogs that those 'positions' are non-negotiable COMMANDS. When do I give my dog's treats? When I feel like giving them a treat - not as part of training.

My work with dogs is always based on setting up a healthy and respectful relationship between dog and owner. While I use a variety of methods and tools to reach that goal, for the reasons discussed, treats are not in my teaching "toolbox". I believe focusing on a strong relationship, where a dog works for their owner rather than food, will always provide the best best long term results.