12/22/2023
Stop rewarding your dog for everything they do right or you’re always going to have to have it with you
When your dog always gets rewarded for the same behavior, they become dependent on that reward other wise they won’t do what you’re asking them to do. This gets tough for most owners because there are going to be times when you want or need your dog to listen to you but you don’t have any food with you to reward them with. You might get away with that one time and still get the desired result but if they are dependent on the food, they will catch on quick that you don’t have anything with you.
Using food for rewards is the easiest and most convenient way at to reward your dog so I definitely think you should keep using it in your training, it’s just time to start challenging your dog more and gradually rewarding them less
Fading the reward is pretty simple if you can keep track along the way. When you are working on a command like sit for example, you probably feed them every time you say sit and their but hits the ground. When you’re fading the food, you will want to start delaying the reward by 1-2 seconds. That means their butt needs to stay down for that long before you reward. Each time you say sit, challenge them to wait longer. Every 3-4 times, randomly reward them sooner to help prevent frustration or anticipation.
You can learn more about fading food in my Foundations Course
The Links in my bio
