Ok so my lil black lab is now 6 and a half month old now! How did that happen? He has always been very trainable! But now I would like to take away the treats and stop "bribing him". When training I make it a lottery to him. He doesn't get one all the time. I will give him one, I dunno every 3 tricks he does. Same as leash walking. His recall is 100% even with other people and dogs as long as they ignore him. If they call him then im not sure what would happen as I have never tried it. When I use treats when training as I have described above his attention is on me about 70% of the time and the rest is everything else. I can get him performing tricks in the yard albeit very slowly but I can still get him doing them without treats ummm 70% of the time. With treats I can get him doing tricks in the town centre. But I can only get him to obey the average tricks everywhere else without them. And that is sit, stay, heel etc. Most of the time. Then he runs off sniffing everything again. Keeping his attention is hard. So to sum it all up. He is about 70% in all tricks everywhere when I use treats as rewards. As to be expected at this age. And bear in mind he isn't being rewarded all the time. It is sporadic. Without treats its very hard to keep his attention even in the yard. But I can still get him doing his tricks at home. Just slower. Again without treats getting him to do tricks outside is VERY hard. He will only do 30% of what he does at home. My question is, is it a bad idea to phaise out ALL treats ALL the time? Or can I stick with what im doing now? Using treats but not giving them for every trick he does? What do you guys think about treats and training?
Re: Training and treats advice! if it were me, I would say, if its not broken, dont fix it You seem to be doing very well indeed just the way you are, it might be different if it were treats every time, but its not, so carry on as you are doing , sounds great to me
Re: Training and treats advice! Sounds good to me too! You can slowly phase out treats over time - look up Pippa's article about that, and the 'gambling effect'.
Re: Training and treats advice! How are you using the treats? As a lure, visible in your hand, or out of sight and as a reward? The reason I ask is because you mention treats as a bribe.
Re: Training and treats advice! Hi thanks for the replys! I do a lot of all. I will sometimes use it as a lure if he is sloppy. Sometimes I just hold them in my hand but not really making it visual. Just somewhere to store them. Me being absentminded really. Then I use a treat pouch on my belt. And treat him when he has done the trick. BTW I am using average kibble as a reward
Re: Training and treats advice! If you are getting a 70% success rate at the moment I would up the value of treats and also the succession rate of rewards until you get more like 90% success rate. I am extremely generous with rewards especially in the early stages of training a new behaviour and when the environment gets more distracting.
Re: Training and treats advice! i treat my fella big time for the recall ;D for the sit, lie down he just does without treats, for the wait moving 30 mtr away i only treat when i whistle , shout come and give a big treat ....i have not taught him tricks as such, i have just stuck to the training for now......
Re: Training and treats advice! I would start keeping the treats in your pocket, so he is not sure if you have any. The treat pouch is a big signal that he may get treats and its absence a big signal that he probably won't. I never phase out treats completely I just use them for good examples of behaviour, or for the end of a chain of behaviours (like a heeling pattern). There is always something new to learn, too, so some things get treated a lot while more established behaviours less so.
Re: Training and treats advice! This thread has made me think......I always feel like I treat too much but now I think about it ,I treat a lot when we up the distractions or learn something new.Like Rachael says there is always something new to learn and I feel like we are only just starting out still so there is a lot to learn therefore I treat a lot..newpuppymom,I use kibble too out of Dex's meal allowance for his rewards.However We are really getting stuck into proofing our Recall( ho hum ,feels like a lifetimes work....) so roast chicken and sausages are coming into play .....He got some salmon skin this morning to take his worm tablets with.....think he thought it was his Birthday!
Re: Training and treats advice! Really useful thread, making me think about what I'm doing. I'm very generous with treats all the time - but apart from very routine stuff, like "sit" in the house, we haven't really nailed much yet up to the 90% mentioned by Heidrun. I'll watch more carefully what I'm doing though.
Re: Training and treats advice! Lynne,it wasn't Kate's recipe for the crispy version,I steamed the Salmon last night for our dinner and peeled the skin off ....and wrapped his pills up in it.he has shot himself in the foot though....because it was so slimey he just inhaled and the skin was gone and out popped the pills....3 attempts with the fish skin and still the pills were on the kitchen floor....so I went to plan B......kibble!he crunched his way through that AND the pills......all gone.So the moral of the story Dexter is kibble is best, he he he! X
Re: Training and treats advice! O! I've been wrapping Charlie's pills in roast chicken skin - works a treat. But now I've heard about Dexter's experience, it's quite likely true that I could put a pill in his kibble and it would go down without touching the sides just like the kibble does... hah - we're winning, I can feel us gaining the upper hand here!
Re: Training and treats advice! My previous dog would eat a bowl of kibble and have the pill untouched in the bottom. I learned to shove them in some cheese or wiener chunks... Worked most of the time...
Re: Training and treats advice! Yep, I stuff 'em in cheese or sausage or the like. One animal that you can't fool with the concealment method is ducks. They are masters of sifting. I had to give a duck antibiotic tablets for 30 days (1 a day) and I started out by putting the tablet in one pea in a big handful of peas (ducks go bonkers for peas). All the peas were hoovered up...a pause....and then the pill was spat out.
Re: Training and treats advice! Ha ha I could just see it!! So how did you get them to take it in the end?
Re: Training and treats advice! Ducks sound high maintenance !Give me a labrador any day! Have to laugh at the pause......then the pea spat out! Clever duck!
Re: Training and treats advice! hi angela....jasper had to have 3 tapeworm tablets the vet advice me to put them in a spoon full of butter,....it worked for me we give him cod liver oil capsules in with his kibble
Re: Training and treats advice! Well, it is not easy to give a duck a tablet. They have very agile and muscular tongues and the back of their throats are lined with spikes. They make a living out of sifting out food they don't want. So there is definitely an art to dosing a duck. Plus you have to avoid being comprehensively pooped on or whacked on the nose with a wing. Give me a Labrador any day.
