“Where’s my reward?” It’s normal for a dog to expect a reinforcer after listening to a cue and performing the behavior. Even after a behavior she’s done for years and years. If you don’t reinforce with food, the behavior will weaken and eventually, disappear. So ask yourself when your dog stops responding as she used to, “Have I been periodically rewarding the behavior I’m cuing?”
When dressing up a dog in a holiday costume, even if it’s a simple fluffy collar tutu, rewarding a response to a cue is the thing to do. Because whatever you do to change an environment, even if it’s adding clothing, it changes things for a dog. So reinforcing the response goes a long way to helping a dog to generalize their either newly learned behaviors from a recent board-and-train or long-term learned behaviors.
And there are some gadgets out there that can be used for dog training treat making that makes it fun for you and the dog. Dash makes a few types. One for making bone shaped treats and even one for making special Halloween treats.
I use the bone shaped ones all the time and dogs love the various flavors of batter I use to make training food for them. Even little vampire puppies are very willing to sit still for a short while so I can take their photo when a homemade dog training treat is on the way.
It takes a little patience and a few good dog training tidbits to keep your dog performing cued behaviors.
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Helen Verte Schwarzmann
954-768-9696
239-368-3682
Contact me
Certified in Training and Counseling
Certified Pet Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed
Certified Trick Dog Instructor
AKC STAR Puppy, CGC, and Trick Dog Trainer and Evaluator
Your Board-and-Train Dog Trainer for south Florida in Southwest Ranches, Plantation, Fort Lauderdale, Weston, Davie, and Broward, and east and southwest Florida, Fort Myers, Naples, Collier and Lee counties, cities near me
