Reason #329 why giving or getting a dog for Christmas is a BAD idea.

PLEASE do your research. You should give your dog treats as rewards for good behavior. The occasional snack won’t kill her but the idea that nothing in life is free will help you immensely in your future training.

You can easily buy another brand of premium dog kibble and measure it out daily for use as treats. Then… you simply cut back what you feed her as a meal if you’ve had a heavy treat day.

I use a wide variety of kibbles as training treats, and have even used kitty kibble from time to time when I get a sample at a dogshow.

Edit: I’ll echo Stina on this one… google NILF or nothing in life is free

Yes, you should. I’d say just when training any time over 1-5 minutes is too much.

Giving treats is determined as a percent of the normal diet. IMO it should be no more than 5% by weight.

Remember that training with treats happens best when the treats are given randomly after the initial training is complete. That makes it more likely that the dog will respond correctly when you do not have a treat handy.

I would give her small treats (the size of your fingernail, just a taste!) everytime she does what you want her to, including doing her business outside. Once she’s a bit older and more consistent you can start doing reward treats every other time she does something good, then every third time, etc, until the behavior is instinct. But verbal/physical praise (such as a rub) never go out of style.

lol my dog wont do anything unless i give him treats but that’s my fault.
I didn’t no what i was doing every time he done something i wanted him to do i would give him one now he wont do anything unless he see,s a treat in my hand…..all my fault

he will drop,sit,beg,stay only for treats …..i recked my dog but i love him to death

I feed my dog kibble as the bulk of his diet, and about a third of it I make him work for throughout the day. He gets one measure in the am, one in the pm, and then the third goes in my doggy pack for the day. My bf eats meat, so he gets a bit of chicken too once in a while.

We play find the food games with our dogs in the yard, and I also use a piece or two a reward for doing as I ask. If he did not work for his food, I bet he would be hungry by the next day! It may sound harsh by human standards, but for a dog it helps him have a JOB to do. It helps keep his brain active as well as helping with training. If I switched his treats to be something more tasty like packaged treats are, he would get used to eating them and be a real fat dog! I think a food motivated dog is better off not getting treats as you need so many of them and it may make them picky eaters. I like just using a portion of my dog’s normal food, it is how I was trained to work with guard dogs in the past. Just my opinion
Add: As your dog grows up, you should not give treats for every little thing. Use them for teaching new behaviors or as a lure, but you don’t want your dog to expect a cookie all the time or she will expect it every time. You can still give a treat for potty breaks or simple commands you know she has already learned reliable, but only once in a long while. My dog got treats for sitting so I can get his leash on when I first got him, but not now. He gets LOTS of food rewards for new behaviors, then less and less. I am always looking at new ways to keep us both busy:)

use small treat and big praise. Small bites of apple, banana and carrots are enjoyed by lots of pups. Also small pieces of cooked liver which add protein but no starch.

pleeease dont give dogs cat food, it will give them worms….how awful to tell someone to do that.
My personal opinion: PRAISE praise PRAISE

shes doing brilliantly it will do her no harm to give her a treat when she does her business outside, she will understand this as shes done a good thing, but make sure you give her the treat as soon as shes done it.

1. Take some of the food she’s supposed to have each day and set it aside. Then use that kibble for treats/rewards whenever she does good. That way you can be sure you aren’t overfeeding her.

2. Yes, a small treat is fine when you’re rewarding her for doing her business, especially on command. But don’t forget lots of praise. You see, it’s not that she remembers the treat, it’s that she remembers the FEELING. So if you praise, stroke her back and then treat her, what she remembers is when I got to this spot and do my business, I feel real good afterwards.

Treat her for everything she does that you like. When you go on a walk, mention her name. If she looks up at you, treat. She’s learning her name AND she’s learning to focus on you outside. When you call her for her crate, put a treat inside and let her find it–she’ll start to associate her crate with fun surprizes.

3. Almost all treats are too big. I have a 20 pound dog (3 years old). His treats are no bigger than the size of a pea (and some are smaller than that).

4. Think of the treats in a hierarchy. You start with the kibble (for doing run of the mill things). Than move it up a notch–maybe something like part of a dog biscuit. Then you have what are called high-value treats. These are the things that the dog goes frantic over. My dog’s high value treats (they don’t have to be food) are (from lowest to highest value of the high value items): cooked hot dog slices, cooked salmon scales, tugging with his rope toy, cheese sticks, and his soccer ball (he’ll kill for his soccer ball). I don’t recommend hot dogs and cheese sticks for a puppy but that illustrates the hierarchy. And the reason this is important is that I use the high value treats to reinforce the important stuff. With a puppy, that’s probably recalls or come. Use the lower value treats to reward things the puppy is already doing (like the house training).

However, something I’d bet would be a good high value treat that is the right size would be Zuke’s mini-treats. They’re a bit smaller than the size of a pea, hold their shape well (so you can put a bunch in your pants or coat pocket and not get left with a bunch of crumbs), are very healthy, I have yet to find a dog that doesn’t love them and they chew easy. I’ve listed the website below–all of their stuff is quality.