The Typical Claims About Using Dog Treats For Training:
- Once you use treats, then a dog will forever only work for treats.
- The use of treats is “bribery”.
- Limited treats, up front is OK, but then after that the rest of training should be about “communication”: the leash, very little talking, your body language, and the boundaries you set.
- Treats compromise your dog’s attention to you.
So, what is the deal? What is right and what is wrong? Is it OK to use treats in training?
Of course it is OK. These claims are all false. Treat training has valid uses throughout training process. I think that sometimes the objection to the use of food in training is an ego thing, kind of like “I want the dog to obey me because it is me.” Sorry, that approach isn’t very motivating to dogs and doesn’t switch on the brain’s ability to develop associations. No dog is going to slavishly obey you, with a happy attitude, because you walk around like some zombie.
Just because a novice trainer hasn’t figured out how to use treats appropriately, doesn’t mean that the use of treats is damaging in some way. If they can’t get away from showing a visible treat for every command (or some use the term, “cue”), that doesn’t mean that they have reached the apex of training a dog using treats. It means they don’t know how to get past that point. Those 4 Claims will not lead to a well-trained dog, sorry.
Food should be a tool in your toolbox. My toolbox at home has lots of tools: screwdrivers, wrenches, a hammer, rasp, micro saw, drill bits, some oil, sandpaper, picks, files, pliers, measuring tape, scissors, and such. My dog training “toolbox” has a lot of tools, as well, including treats. You pick the right tool for the task. For home repairs, sometimes it is a sandpaper, sometimes it is a rasp. For dogs, sometimes it is food, sometimes it is some other tool. I don’t get my ego all twisted up over the tool. You shouldn’t either.
Plan accordingly.