After training, what's next? Once the dog's response is predictable, meaning that you know that the pooch will respond a certain way to a specific command, it is time to ensure that these behaviors become second nature. Training with treats (food, toys, etc.) just does the job of letting the dog know that it is doing something that we approve of. However if we train with treats and leave training at that, we end up with a dog that thinks that every time it does something good it will/should recieve a treat, which may have some set backs. The goal of phasing out treats is to eliminate the goodies while keeping the same response to a command with verbal praise sufficing as a reward.

 

Lets put a likely example of what can happen should someone forget to phase out food rewards. Someone is training their dog to come, the dog seems to have it down because whenever the owners says "Come" the dog comes and the owner gives it a treat. Now the dog comes because it expects a treat every time. Lets say the dog gets out and dashes away to the park as soon as the owner opens the car door. The owner yells "Come" and the pooch comes without delay, however the owner doesn't have treats on him, so all he can offer is verbal praise. The owner uses the "Come" command a few more times and every time the dog listens but hesitates more about returning. Finally its time to go and the owner calls the dog with the recall command, but the dog no longer comes when called. What went wrong? The problem was that the dog expected a treat for coming to the owner, however the owner didn't have any treats, therefore the dog no longer has a reason to come back. Slowly reducing the number of food rewards should eliminate, or at the very least mitigate, this problem. Your dog shouldn't expect a treat for obeying, besides its not practical to have dog food or toys with you all the time. Although it is very helpful to keep them handy every now and then.

 

Fading out food rewards is a way an owner can make treat rewards unexpected and teaches the dog to suffice with verbal praise.

 

Once the dog makes the connection between a command, the action, and the reward, it is time to wean the dog off the treats. To start the weaning process, repeat a command, wait for the appropriate response and give a reward. Repeat the command you are teaching a couple times, each time rewarding verbally and with a treat. Now alternate using treat + verbal praise with only using verbal praise (without food/toy).

 

Use the following pattern for the next set of commands:   

 

F = reward with food treat and verbal praise 

V = reward using only verbal praise

 

First set of commands: F, F, F, F, F, F, F, F

 

Second set of commands: F,V, F,V, F,V, F,V, F,V

 

Third set of commands: F, V, V, F, V, V, F, V, V, F

 

Fourth set of commands: (random) F, V, V, F, F, V, F, V, V, V, F

 

You don't have to follow this pattern exactly, but it should give a general idea of how to begin to ask more from the dog but giving less. The last commands should be unpredictable because we don't want a pooch that will only listen every other time, or in a specific pattern. If for some reason the dog does something else when you only verbally praise, for example he won't stay seated if you don't have a treat, then you have to start all the way from square one and make sure that he knows what's expected of him.

 

Make sure that you are verbally praising with every succesful command, it doesn't matter if you are giving a treat or not. Be consistent with your schedule and follow through in all your training sessions. However don't try to fit it all into one or two training sessions, you will just bore your dog. It takes a couple tries and at different times. With time your pooch won't know when a goody is coming thus he won't hesitate to obey an order just in case that there is a treat for obeying, and also to seek your aproval, which some dogs value much higher than treats.