I stuff Kongs with food to encourage my dogs to work for meals when I don’t use their daily rations for dog training. I also encourage my dog training clients to use food toys for their dogs. Kongs serve to use some of the mental energy dogs have. My personal bias is that Kong Dog Toys, and other food-destuffing toys, are doggy meditative toys. Have you ever watched a dog with a Kong between his paws licking out the {Read More}
Food Toys
October 20, 2013 by
I usually use Kongs as food toys for my dogs. Food toys/puzzles are a magnificent way to stretch your dog’s mind muscles. When you can’t train with your dog’s meal, then use food puzzles. This way the dog still has to work for his meal, and that means expending that mental energy that you and I know is *work* to put out! Oh, and you don’t have to use just one type of food toy, or one food toy of {Read More}
Why Use Food For Dog Training?
October 19, 2013 by
Food is a motivator to every living being on the planet. Without food, we would perish. When the feeling of hunger strikes, it’s pretty hard to think of anything else but eating, especially as your stomach starts to growl. Having such a powerful motivator is almost like having a magic wand. Food gets a dog’s attention. Dogs focus when food is in the training game. Food motivates. Period. This is cause to celebrate not complain! Reinforcing behaviors with food makes {Read More}
Fort Lauderdale Cookie Trainer
October 18, 2013 by
Cookie training is a euphemism for dog training using food as motivation. That euphemism is most often used by force trainers, those using pain to train. Dog trainers who were running classes when I first started learning to train were unimpressed, and maybe even uneducated, about the power behind training with treats. Force was the dominant method of dog training then, literally and figuratively. But now there is a much better way to train dogs using two of the four {Read More}
Cookie Training
October 17, 2013 by
When I was first learning how to train dogs, it was back in the 80’s. My first classes were with Dick Koehler. Through his tutelage, I learned how to train dogs using a method of force. If we are looking at quadrants, that would be positive punishment (which really isn’t positive at all) and negative reinforcement. Positive punishment was what we did to dogs when we yanked up on the choke chain when a dog didn’t obey the command, sit, {Read More}
