I use kibble for all my training and it's worked well so far as a reward for Nelson (4 months). I've had a few failed recalls and thought I should up my game with some cooked chicken fillet. He loves it, recalls were perfect today, but it somehow feels that it has made him less interested in the kibble "treats". Has anyone else encoutered this? How did you handle it? Did it affect you training efficiency? Did you end up having to offer "high value" all the time? (I really want to keep high value as occasional treats and always for recall) /Blushes, I meant "effect" not "affect".
@Snowy I have various treats for various things I'm training. So if I am training something new or difficult I use cooked chicken, frankfurter, ham, sausage etc. If it's something my dogs already know I use little bits of cheese or fish skin cubes, but Hattie & Charlie will still take kibble. You could alternate between offering kibble then a tiny piece of cheese. I wouldn't give high value treats all of the time because that would devalue it. Don't forget to deduct anything other than kibble from Nelson's main meals x
Definitely vary your treats. Coco changes his opinion on what is highest value, so if we're training lots of stuff, we have to have a variety. One minute sausage is the best, then it's bonio biscuits. The next minute it's liver cake, or it could be kibble or schmackos! Variety is the key for Coco. For regular, every day treats it's roast beef.
We used high value treat for quite some time....I can't remember how long...probably till after the teenage phase. Then she settled and they just sort of faded out as she had nailed her recall and general nice doggy behaviour. Now I hardly take anything...age 3. I did reduce food to compensate when she had ham, cheese etc....it worked for
Where? Just for curiosity. It's a long time since grammar school for me. You used one in the title and one in sentence. I think one use is correct and the other not. Just for fun. I'm sure we all understand anyway. For recall outside, on our trails, food doesn't cut it. I use balls and throw them. At four months old I wasn't using treats at all as I started at 8 weeks old with just praise and hugs and reassurance at being back with Mum.
In the title: "Introducing higher value treats and affect on interest in kibble" I think that should have been "effect on interest in kibble". Thanks everyone for the replies. Progress has been made and we're currently at the situation I wanted to be at: Nelson works hard, not knowing when he gets the high value treat.
Mended I think it depends on the dog. Mollie and Zaba don't even notice what the reward is so long as it's fooooooooood! Tatze is much more discerning and, for a while, I found myself showing her the treat before the exercise - bad idea, she'd then decide whether it was 'worth it' So now I don't even always give a treat at all. It may be nothing, kibble or jackpot. I'm random about it so that she works hard come what may.
