Welcome back to McCann Dogs. I'm Kayl McCann. Today.
We're gonna be talking a little bit about using food in your training.
And we get asked a lot of questions specifically about what treats we use in our
training, what treats you should use in certain situations. Also,
how do you train a dog if your dog doesn't even like treats?
These are all really important questions and all things you need to know while
you're training your puppy.
It's really difficult to tell you exactly what type of treat you need to use for
your puppy, because every single puppy is different.
You really have to know what they find to be the most valuable. Actually,
I think I have just the way to show you how to figure this out. Come on Five.
So I have a bunch of different types of treats here. We have kibble cheese,
some dogs that do not go up on the counter. We have some tuna treats,
some liver and some, uh, cooked chicken and steak. Some really good stuff.
So I want you to think about these treats in terms of value and a really easy
way to think about value is thinking about money now, I'm Canadian.
So I have a bunch of different colored bills here.
We have 5, 20, 50, a hundred dollars,
really easy to tell things apart. So if I'm thinking about training, say Five,
you guys have seen Five on lots of videos before.
If I was to categorize these treats for him in terms of value,
lowest value for him would be kibble. We'll put that on the $5 one.
You leave that. Um, next thing would be probably cheese. He likes cheese.
This would work in a lot of different circumstances, but you know,
it's not as high value as maybe something else, uh, dried liver. He loves this.
Tuna treats, absolutely loves it.
But if I was to say his absolute favorite or the highest value would be like
cooked chicken or cooked steak. So these would be the big guns.
Now why it's important to categorize this is that you need to be able to know
what treats to use in certain situations. Now this is gonna differ per dog,
you know, um, Euchre, uh, Border Collie that I've trained in the past on the,
on the channel for her. This would probably all move down one.
And the a hundred dollars bill for her would be a toy, not even treats. Um,
so because she found she was more of a toy dog rather than a food dog.
So you're gonna have to figure out what your dog likes and the way you're gonna
figure that out is by reading their body language. I might, oh my God.
Okay. Let's try that again.
You might start somewhere like the kitchen to try and figure out what, uh,
treat your dog likes the best. So, um,
if I have kibble or if I have a higher value treat,
I have some tuna treats in this hand, I might just put some food on his nose,
put some food on his nose and then just sort of hold my hands out.
I think there's a clear winner here. The thing is though,
is if you're doing this in the kitchen,
some dogs will like any type of food that you put in front of them because
there's zero distractions around. And again,
the point of this video is to help you to understand what treats to use in
higher, uh, distracting situations.
So if the kibble works awesome here in the kitchen,
it doesn't mean I'm gonna trek to the park with a handful of kibble and expect
to have a lot of success.
So if I'm outside and it's raining and there's lots of stuff going on,
I'm gonna need the good stuff. If I expect to get his attention, oh.
You need to figure out what treats to use and what scenario.
So when you're training with nothing going on, um, you know,
kibble is great to use, but if you're gonna go somewhere,
that's a bit more distracting,
you're gonna need to figure out what your dog likes the most.
Let's talk about how a high value reward can be used in your puppy's training.
And it can use the recall, the come command as a good example for this,
you know, say you're at the park and there's, you know,
kids and sports and other dogs happening.
And your dog is really distracted and you have something that is, you know,
higher value.
It's really important that you're utilizing that to help teach your dog.
That coming to you is more important than what's going on around them.
We need to change the value from the distraction to being, uh, with you. Now,
we have a lot of people that will say, you know,
I could shake a steak in front of my dog's face,
but he would never respond to me.
He would rather go and play with the other dogs or ignore me.
And so what you also need to remember is that it isn't specifically about the
food in our training. We wanna use that as a reward. We,
we definitely wanna use that to our advantage,
but at some point you need to make sure that the value of the exercise actually
outweighs the distraction.
The value of the exercise actually outweighs the distraction.
So if you think of it this way,
if I teach five to come in an environment where there's less going on,
there's not much happening. And I do, you know, a hundred rep, yes, good boy,
a hundred repetitions with a $20 value treat.
And I do it over and over and over again.
He's starting to learn that that particular behavior is really worthwhile.
I've put a lot of money in the bank.
Literally if I go to the park and he's distracted,
and I say that keyword that come command or his name,
and he has previous previous experience of associating that command with getting
a lot of value. I now can go up against those hard distractions,
even though I don't happen to have, you know, a stake or his favorite reward.
So it's not really about getting the most valuable treat and then going to those
hard situations and seeing what happens.
It's about putting value on an exercise by getting a lot of repetition and then
going to a distracting environment and then working your way through it.
And remember, you can always remove yourself from the distraction.
If you find you're up against something that your dog is just really having a
hard time, tearing themselves away from move further away from that distraction,
go to an environment that your food does get a little bit more focused from your
dog, and then inch your way towards being able to be in that harder situation.
There are some people that say they have dogs that are not interested in working
for food. And there is some truth to that.
There are some dogs that aren't naturally motivated by food,
but we have nearly 500 dogs that come through our training school each week.
And we teach all of them how to work for food.
So if your dog's not that motivated by food,
I want you to consider three things.
Number one is your puppy or dog just not hungry.
Maybe they've been eating all day. You've been free feeding them. And.
They just, just don't really find the food that valuable or important,
or maybe are they just literally not hungry because they've already had their
breakfast or their, their lunch.
And they have a small stomach and they can't eat a lot.
You might have to change how much you feed in a day in order to build up a
little bit more motivation for food. The second thing could be environment.
Are you trying to train in an environment that's just too distracting?
So your dog is really stimulated or overwhelmed by what's happening it,
could they be, um, worried or unsure in that environment?
A lot of dogs.
Will not really be interested in eating food if they're feeling stressed or
they're feeling a little bit nervous.
So you do need to consider your environment and making sure that your dog is
actually comfortable in where they're working or not over stimulated or
distracted. Um, and then also consider how well they know the skill.
Maybe you need to backtrack a little bit to make things easier.
And number three,
have you actually taught your dog how to work for food at this point,
teaching the dogs to follow food is actually one of the very first things that
we do with our puppies. When we bring them home, it seems like such a simple,
natural thing for puppies to do, but believe it or not,
you actually have to teach your puppy how to follow food, how to work for food.
Um, and you need to do that very slowly and gradually when your puppy is young,
without any distractions around. So they really get the.
Game. Let's dispel a few myths about giving your dog human food.
First one is your dog is not going to start begging at the table,
if you give them human food. A lot of people are very hesitant to do that.
What makes them beg at the table is feeding them from the table.
You could have a bowl of kibble up there,
and if you're feeding them from the table, that will cause them to beg.
Another myth is that people think that if they're giving their dog, all.
Of these treats.
That they're gonna end up getting fat.
We actually did a video specifically about that.
We'll make sure that we link that down below for you,
but basically it's about rationing your dog's food.
If you're giving your dog a normal meal,
you're not gonna give them a bunch of treats on top of that.
So we talk a little bit about that in the video.
When should you be using high value rewards?
Now there's the obvious situation like your dog is in a very distracting
environment and you wanna have, you know,
really high value treats to go up against that particular distraction.
That's gonna obviously be very important,
but another situation that people often don't think about or situations when
your dog isn't necessarily really overexcited, but maybe they're a little.
Bit unsure.
They're a little bit worried. Maybe you're taking them to the vet office.
Maybe you have to clip their toenails, and that's not a pleasant experience.
Maybe your dog's a bit nervous about getting in the car. You know,
anytime your dog needs a little bit more help, those.
Are really.
Good situations to use high value rewards in. Because it,
it gives the dog a little bit more drive to do whatever that is.
That thing is that they're doing that maybe they don't love.
And keep in mind when you do something like clip their toenails and each time
you do that, they get, you know,
a piece of steak or cheese or something that they really love. That experience,
that was once maybe not so pleasant,
becomes more pleasant and more pleasant and more pleasant each time that you do
it.
Till eventually you don't need those high value treats to do that thing anymore
because you've now.
Transferred the value from the treat to the actual behavior itself.
If you find that your dog is becoming dependent on food,
it probably means that you're not being a great trainer for your dog.
And it's not so much that you have a food problem,
it's that you have a timing problem.
And this is so important that we actually made an entire video on that.
So if you wanna check that out, click right here,
another way that you can start to wean off of the reward,
or even a high value reward is to practice multiple times in a row. First,
starting with that high value reward to get the ball rolling.
This is gonna help your dog to anticipate something really great happening once
they've done a couple really successful repetitions throw in one as a test,
maybe don't show them the food ahead of time.
Maybe delay a little bit more and see if they can do that particular behavior
more successfully.
This is a great way to get your dog to do something really well on the first
try. By priming the pump by showing them a few times. First,
this also leads into having great timing.
If you're able to successfully give a cue followed, then by properly timed,
lure, or reward or assistance in some way,
it's a lot easier to ask them to do something and have them actually respond a
little bit more independently.
Now that we've talked in depth about using high value rewards in your training.
I have a bit of homework for you. In the comments below,
I want you to list your dogs five favorite rewards, and I want you to rate them.
So number one would be something your dog absolutely loves.
And number five would be something that they're happy to work for,
but it's not their favorite.
Now that you know a little bit more about your puppy's favorite rewards and you
know how to use them, it's time to put it to practice. Now,
this video would be perfect for you.
It's all about puppy training morning routine.
So you can get five wins in even before breakfast.
If you're looking for some guidance with your puppy training and you want some
help from me and the rest of the McCann Dogs team,
make sure you check out the link in the description below to our puppy
essentials online program. On that note, I'm Kayl. This is Five Alive,
happy training.