Treat Time!

As loyal followers of the Toes N' Tails gang, we're quite certain that you spoil your dogs just as much as we're spoiled by our owners (we take that back...I doubt there is a dog on this planet that lives the life of luxury that we enjoy).  And as spoiled dogs, you probably give you dogs treats every now and then as a token of your affection for your canine companion.

However, do you know that depending on how you give your dog treats, he may actually be taking your genorosity for granted?  Yes, that is correct....your loyal dog may be turning into a dog with a sense of entitlement just because of treat time.  How can you prevent your dog from turning into a furry version of Paris Hilton?  It's actually quite easy!

When you provide a treat for your dog, you should ensure that your dog is always 'doing something' to deserve the treat (regardless of whether that treat is a milk-bone, a carrot stick, a piece of hot dog, or whatever kind of treat you have for the dog).  We at the Toes N Tails gang call this 'working for prize' and once you start consistently practicing this with your canine, you should have a more obedient dog on your hands.

For beginners, you should always make your dog sit for any treat or desired action (going out for a walk, going for a ride in the car, etc).  Even us (extremely attractive canines) have to sit for our treats.  We sit for biscuits, we sit for pieces of turkey, we sit for 'beggin strips' (which our owner really thinks are the exact same thing as the beef jerky that humans consume).

Once you have 'sit' down (get the pun there..."sit down"), you should move on to more advanced tricks.  A few suggestions would be 'stay' and 'come' and 'down' and 'speak' and any other tricks that you can think of.  If you're concerned that some tricks may be tougher for your dog to master than others, you are probably correct.  Speaking for ourselves, we have issues with 'stay' and 'down' most of the time, but we are really good at 'come' and 'speak' (speak is something we do regardless of whether there is a prize involved or not). 

For the tougher exercises, you can substitute more desired 'prizes' for your dog (such as hot dog pieces or chicken breast pieces or any type of meat (plain meat, we want to add....do not include any sauce/condiment on the meat treats) as these more desired treats give the dog a little extra incentive to work harder for the end result.  Just from experience, Rocky (white stripe on his face) is a little more motivated to get down and stay down where there is a piece of beef in front of him instead of a carrot stick or milk-bone.  When teaching Desi and Rocky to 'come' to us, it was pretty much a lost cause until we started using pieces of chicken breast, so if you think your dog just isn't 'trainable' when it comes to tricks and commands, try out our suggestions before throwing in the towel.  You'll be surprised at how much food motivates a canine.

When you refer to these different levels of treats, you can classify them as 'bronze' or 'silver' or 'gold' treats (just like the Olympic medals...like the ones our favorite skier Julia Mancuso won in Vancouver).  Bronze treats are your standard dog biscuit/milk-bone, Silver treats are beggin' strips/snausages/human crackers/carrot sticks/celery/apple pieces, and Gold treats are pieces of steak/hot dog/chicken/turkey.

Are you clear on all of our instructions/suggestions?  We hope so!  If not, let us know and we can answer any questions you may have.  In the meantime, get to work on getting your dogs to work!!