Ahhh, food, glorious food. Using food as lures and rewards greatly facilitates dog training. However, food is seldom used effectively. Some people are strongly opposed to using food in training, saying that they don’t want to bribe their dogs, whereas others overuse food and fail to phase it out and so, reliability suffers.
Whether or not to use food as lures and rewards for teaching basic manners really depends on how much time the owner has to train the dog. If speed is of the essence, food (or toy) lures are the way to go. Food lures make training lightning fast. Without using food lures, it can take weeks and months to achieve off-leash verbal control.
Similarly, it’s really silly not to use food lures and rewards to prevent common and predictable behavior problems, such as housesoiling, destructive chewing, and excessive barking. Three freeze-dried liver treats are an extremely effective reward when the puppy/dog uses his toilet area. Once the dog learns that he can cash in his bodily waste for liver treats, he wouldn’t dream of soiling the house when left at home alone.
Instead of feeding a dog from a bowl, weigh out the dog’s daily allotment of kibble, moisten the food, stuff into hollow chew toys and freeze overnight to give to the dog when you leave for work in the morning. The food (the dog’s breakfast) lures the dog to settle down calmly and quietly for a good chew, and each little piece of food that comes out rewards the dog for lying down, chewing his toy (instead of other articles), and not barking. Feeding dogs from chew toys is the easiest and quickest way to resolve chewing, barking, and (especially) owner-absent behavior problems.
Food is also extremely effective for the prevention or treatment of temperament problems, such as fearfulness and aggression. In fact, I feel that the use of food should be mandatory because it is pretty much the only way to rebuild confidence and reestablish a good relationship with others. Yes, of course, our instinct tells us to reassure a shy or fearful dog by approaching and giving him a hug, but unfortunately eye-contact, proximity, approach, and especially touch are the very things that the dog is afraid of. Food may be used effectively to lure a fearful dog to approach and to reward him for approaching and staying close. Food may be used to progressively desensitize the dog to enjoy being handled. And food may be used super effectively for classical conditioning, to teach dogs to thoroughly enjoy the presence and actions of people, especially including children, men, and strangers.
Using food as lures and rewards is very different from bribing. However, the owner must go cold turkey on the use of food as a lure after just half a dozen trials in the very first training session. This is pretty easy to do because food lures enable dogs to learn hand-signals extremely quickly — within just a couple of minutes — and then the hand-signals may be used to teach off-leash verbal commands. Additionally, it is essential to phase out food rewards and replace them with (much more valuable) life-rewards, such as walking and sniffing, playing with other dogs, and playing fetch and tug with you. It is essential that the dog’s compliance does not become dependent on your having food in your hand or a pouch.
Unfortunately, food-dependency is very common. Many owners are still using food lures during week six of a training class. If food lures are not phased out, the lure/reward process does indeed resemble bribing and, not surprisingly, as soon as the dog reaches adolescence he will blow off the lure (bribe).
Integrating training into life-rewards is the secret to making a dog absolutely reliable off-leash, when at a distance, when distracted, and without the need of any training tools at all. If food rewards are not phased out and replaced with life-rewards, response-reliability becomes dependent on the food pouch.
It is important to use and then phase out all training tools, including food, collars, leashes, halters, and harnesses and to regularly check that the dog is reliable off-leash without them. Reliability will certainly suffer if food rewards are not phased out, but at least the dog has a really great (reward-rich) time during training. Similarly, off-leash, collar-less reliability will be virtually non-existent if the owner fails to phase out metal and shock collars. The striking difference is that, in the latter case, dogs do not enjoy training, which can set up a lifetime of problems.
For more information on the correct use of food and other tools in training, please watch my vlog: http://dogstardaily.com/blogs/lure-reward-training-done-right.
Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian, canine behaviorist, and puppy-training pioneer. He is the founder of SIRIUS® Puppy Training and Scientific Director for www.dogstardaily.com.
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