How to Keep Dog Training Fun By Switching Up The Rewards
I learned about reward based dog training many years ago, but I certainly wasn’t a natural. I could teach my dog to sit by holding a piece of kibble over their head with the best of them, but I struggled with anything that went beyond the basics.
It wasn’t until 6 years ago when Laika entered my life that I finally started to understand more about motivation and focus, and how imperative they are to training. The rewards I’d been using weren’t very exciting for a dog with a ‘go go go’ attitude. Giving Laika a piece of kibble for learning a new trick is like paying a writer $15 for a 1000 word article; they’ll do it once and move on. The reward just isn’t worth the effort.
So I started to improvise by using different treats and games when training. I learned what rewards kept her motivated, and which ones made her yawn. She taught me how to keep dog training fun & interesting by switching up the rewards.
Switching Up The Rewards = More Focus
I used to be the world’s most predictable dog trainer. Every time I grabbed my clicker I’d head over to the cabinet for a few training treats. That worked well for my dog Carter who loved nothing more than food, but it didn’t work well for Laika. It didn’t take long for Laika to figure out the daily treat for a trick routine, and it certainly didn’t take long for her to lose interest.
The biggest improvement I’ve made with dog training is learning how to keep my dog’s interest to begin with. A gentle reminder that I am the bringer of all things fun, and that good things come to those who pay attention to me. And the easiest way I can do that is by switching things up when training.
Laika watches me like a hawk when I get out the clicker. She knows it’s go time. She has no idea what she’s going to be learning, but more importantly she has no idea what awesome thing I’m going to choose as a reward. Rather than heading over to the cabinet for a few treats I head over to the magical toy box. With more than 20 toys to choose from she has no idea what’s coming. Is it going to be tug today, or perhaps a bouncy ball? That spontaneity keeps her focused, and the promise of play will hold her attention more than any treat.
If your dog has a tendency to lose interest when you’re training try switching things up. The act of switching up the routine itself will peak your dog’s interest, and then you can start focusing on what rewards will hold it.
One of the easiest ways to keep your dog focused when training is to switch up the rewards.
Switching Up The Rewards Keeps My Dog Motivated
When it comes to training Laika’s taught me a lot about motivation. I can get away with giving her a treat or verbal praise for doing easy stuff such as practicing tricks she already knows, but if I try that with a complex new trick she’ll lose interest. Treats don’t hold her interest like they did with Carter, and they’ve never been particularly motivating to her.
When we’re working on something new and I grab treats Laika will bring me a toy. She’s far more motivated by play than food (unless there’s meat involved). So when it comes to teaching her something new or particularity challenging I use one of her favorite toys as a reward. To her a quick game of tug or chasing bubbles is a hell of a lot more motivating than a silly treat.
Laika taught me that rewards have different values, and that the ones that I’d been using were pretty cheap. “You expect me to ‘come here’ rather than chase that squirrel for a pat on the head? No thanks, I’ll chase the squirrel and get my pats later.” She was right. The rewards I was using weren’t enticing at all.
I choose rewards based on Laika’s love for the reward itself and to match her current mood. If she hasn’t had her walk or exercise yet I know that a treat will be of no interest; she’ll be all about play. When you work with your dog you learn what motivates them; whether it’s a game or piece of cheese. And you can switch up those rewards to match the task at hand.
Switching Up The Rewards Makes Training Fun
One of the best benefits of switching things up is that it makes training fun. Because Laika is so play motivated it’s impossible not to have fun when training. Even if we don’t accomplish our original goal we still got a fun game of tug out of it. It’s hard to be discouraged when your dog is happily looking up at you, just waiting to find out what fun things are going to happen next.
Laika’s taught me a lot in the past 6 years, but perhaps the most important lesson she’s taught me is the importance of having fun. Training doesn’t have to feel like a chore, and it certainly shouldn’t be boring. By switching things up you can keep training fun and interesting for you and your dog alike.
Please share with your friends 🙂
Do You Switch Up Your Dog’s Rewards?
How do you keep training fun & interesting for your dog? Do you use different rewards when training? Is your dog more motivated more by food or play?
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I’ll never forget when we took Luke to a private trainer, and things went so well at our first session. But when we tried things at home, they didn’t go so well. When back for our second session, our trainer asked us what had happened to the awesome treats we’d used the first time we were there? We had run out, and tried to use something lesser. No go….lesson learned. Keep the treats high value, whatever that treat might be….and your point is great that it can be food or play, every dog is different. So far food has always worked for our current dogs (and Luke doesn’t need high value treats as much as he used to, but I think it’s because we do more fun stuff now, not just basic obedience). But I never had much luck training our late golden Sheba, she was probably less treat motivated than the others. I wonder if I had tried different things with her, if I would have had more luck. Lesson learned for future dogs!
Oh, and thanks so much for joining our hop!
Carter was so easy when it came to training. All I had to do was grab one little treat and he was all over it, drooling if it wasn’t handed out quick enough. Thinking back all of my dogs besides Laika have been super food motivated, which is why it probably took me so long to catch on to the idea of using anything other than a few little treats as a reward.
Such a great post – I learned this from our Nosework trainer as well. If I wanted to really get Walter and Shermie to work I needed to up the value of the treats. I was using cheese strips and needed to be using meatballs. It was SO obvious once I started using something better… they would wait at odor and actually show alert behavior. This is also true on our walks! And since they’re both reactive this isn’t something to mess with!
Bringing something awesome along on walks is a must around here as well. I know my neighbors probably think I’m nuts for walking my dog every day with a tug toy in hand, but hey – whatever works.
Great reminder. It’s so easy for a trainer to get lazy. You’re lucky Laika is such a good trainer.
We also use toys and games as training rewards. And Honey also responds well to affection–butt scratches, etc.
She really is the best trainer in the world, it’s amazing how many things one single dog has taught me.
This is a great post. Barley isn’t toy-motivated at all, so it’s all praise and treats, but I do switching up things by having several different types of treats when we train. I have some really stinky salmon jerky that we use to start agility class to keep her focused. Then when she starts getting tired, we pull out the string cheese for something new and exciting. For the “yay, you did it!” treat at the end of a turn when we aren’t rewarding anything hard, she just gets one of her regular, less stinky treats. Sometimes Rye and I use toys instead of treats, but a lot of times she gets too amped up when the toys come out and can’t focus on the training anymore, so it really depends on the task 🙂 It’s so important to learn what works for each dog and it sounds like you’ve done that!
I don’t know why, but I find it so funny that so many dogs go crazy for cheese (mine included). I don’t know what sort of magic it holds over them, but it really is something.
With Remy, it works well to randomly and sparingly offer a treat here and there vs. having treat-treat-treat-treat-treat for every little thing. He gets too excited when there are a lot of rewards and excitement happening of any kind.
So, I do mix up rewards with a happy voice, playing for few seconds or a treat. He is able to focus better when the rewards are random otherwise he gets too fixated and obsessive on the reward and can’t focus!
Also, I want to add that my dogs are not motivated by affection. If I pat them on the head, they are more annoyed than anything. I think that is the case with a lot of dogs. They’d rather have food, a toy or verbal praise.
Yeah the pat on the head reaction I get from Laika makes me laugh; I don’t know for a fact that she’s annoyed by it, but I’m pretty sure she is.
I think I got really spoiled with Zora and Simon as they are both are highly food motivated yellow labs, both are affection/praise motivated and neither is picky in the treats department.
Piper, on the hand, is not remotely food motivated and has a very stubborn streak 😉 I’ve tried all kinds of treats with her but once we get outside the house it can be hard to get her to focus on me if something else catches her attention. We’ve been working on “watch me” using high value treats inside the house and then slowly increasing the circle outside the house.
Piper sounds similar to Laika in that regard. The slowly increasing the circle outside the house works, but it’s such a step back from what I was used to having dogs that were willing to do anything in the world for a treat.
I dont know that training a dog can be this fun, I will give it a trial
I reward my dog in a bunch of different ways. Anything from petting to words of praise to playing a game and on and on. I’ve heard that dogs being trained for police work are rewarded by having a ball thrown a few times. I tend to use treats. It’s probably not the best idea, but her weight is about right for her breed and age. One of her favorites is to hide and seek jerky. I put her in the bedroom with the door closed for a few minutes while I hide small pieces of jerky in the living room. I try to make them difficult to find but not impossible. As soon as I open the bedroom door, she makes a mad dash to the places she had seen before. After that, her nose starts twitching, and she nearly always finds them all. I’m confident the finding is just as rewarding as eating. https://esacare.com/top-three-dog-training-myths-explained-by-14-renowned-experts/