Why we use food for dog training

"I don't want to rely on food for my training"

"Back in my day we didn't bribe dogs"

"My dog should just do as I say"

Does this sound familiar to you? We hear sentences like this so often and often when we ask why they are in for training it's because the dog won't recall, won't listen, pulls on the lead etc and there is a general break down in a section of their relationship.

Why is the dog like this? Because the owner is holding low value to them. The owner hasn't worked on building the relationship in a way that the dog finds beneficial. In other words, the lack of rewards has dropped engagement and the owners overall value in the dogs eyes.

Imagine having a friend that provides no value to your friendship but has high expectations and demands things of you? How long would you remain friends with this person? Personally, this isn't a friendship I would want to invest any time in and it's the same for your dog.

So if you've found yourself in the position where your dog isn't listening and you want to change it's attitude, the first thing you need to fix is the gaps in your relationship and it's not as hard as you would think.

Firstly

1. STOP feeding your dog from his/her bowl.
2. Put your dogs daily food allowance in a treat pouch
3. Start working on basic exercises and fun games for your dog to earn it's daily calories
4. Use a marker to mark the moment your dog gets the game/training right
5. Reward your dog early and often
6. Be consistent
7. Keep the sessions short 5 mins max
8. Play with your dog daily Ball, tug, wrestling or whatever your dog finds enjoyable
9. Invest daily time into your relationship where the dog feels good about your company

Do this daily for a couple of weeks and look at the change in your dog. You should see a dramatic difference in your dogs attitude, attention and overall demeanour.

For those of you saying that your dog doesn't have food drive, use high value food (not dry biscuits or dried liver. Try PRIME100 or equivilant) and remove all access to food other than through interactions with you. You can build food drive in all dogs.

If you think that this isn't possible, our team works with 50 dogs per day and manages to get every one of them believing they are amazing and worth leaving games for.

Remember- Training only works when you do!