Saturday, November 23, 2013

Avoid Treat Training

Here are some more tips on training your new puppy.

Puppies love treats, but don’t rely on the to teach him good behavior.

It would be a big mistake to rely on food treats to teach your puppy – or a dog of any age. What's wrong with "biscuit training"? It's based on your puppy deciding when he's hungry enough to do what you want.
Imagine your puppy running out the front door. You call him to offer a treat. But he'd rather chase a squirrel into the road than stop to munch a treat. In addition to the obvious danger of Puppy getting hit by a car, he learns that he doesn't have to listen to you. He learns that he's in charge of what he decides to do and what he decides not to do. Very bad!

I'm not saying you shouldn't give any treats to your puppy. Treats can be great motivators. But if your training method consists of  only giving your puppy a treat when he does what you say....while doing nothing if he doesn't do what you say.....then you're going to find yourself in serious trouble whenever you want him to do something and he's not hungry....or whenever you want him to STOP doing something and he'd rather go on doing it, regardless of the treats you're desperately throwing at him.


This sad scenario happens a lot with biscuit training. It doesn't happen at all with "Respect Training."

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