No tricks without treats

[dennygirl]

My golden retriever doesnt do any tricks unless he sees a treat in my hand!:dogunsure: Is there any way to train him to be less dependant on food? :dogunsure:

 

[leema]

Have a look here:

(For the 'drop' behaviour) - it explains how to progress from treats in your hand to treats in the next room.

Good luck!

 

[storm22]

what i did to ween storm off a treat every time he did something was pat him on one command and say YESS then the next time i asked him to do something i gave him a treat and then make it longer before gving a treat
so its like

storm sit-- YESS(really excitedly) and pat
storm sit-- click(with clicker) give treat reward i only click when food is involved

what do others do when they clicker? do you give a food reward everytime?

 

[hockey390]

I give food reward after every click.. I read you are ALWAYS supposed to treat when you click.. Although this could be replaced with positive reinforcements such as getting really excited and the whole "yesssss! Gooooood doggg" or as some here have shown their dogs have favorite toys, or enjoy a little "tug". But so far, I've treated after every click.

 

[zhaira046]

yes there is a way,
pretend to hold a treat on your hand,
and tell him a trick,
when he does the trick dont give the treat,
but only praise him,
then he will learn how to do a trick w/o a treat.



this is zhaira 11 years old and becoming 12 this year,
when i grow up i want to be a veterinarian,

wish me luck,

 

[szecsuani]

I have the same problem with my dog, and I did basically the same thing as Storm22 said.

First, I commanded her to spin, click, treat.
Than another spin, no treat, praising.
Than another spin, treat, no click.
Spin, click, treat.
Spin, no treat, praise.
Then just increase the spins without treats, really slowly, step-by-step.
But sometimes you have to give your dog a treat, this way, he will never know when he gets a reward, so he will always be excited about doing a trick.
Did this make sense?

 

[bipa]

I would continue to click every time a treat is given, but you've got the idea about not treating for every single trick done correctly. Praise is always good each and every time. You want the dog to keep hoping for a treat, yet get used to the idea that he won't get one after every trick.

You're doing great!

 

[szecsuani]

I would continue to click every time a treat is given...

There are some tricks, that I never a clicker for, like jumps, becouse I throw the treat away, to get her to run after it, and away from me, becouse it looks much better in a routine in canine freestyle (as I think). :msnblushing:

 

[Jean Cote]

Most obedience training starts off with treats. But if you go into the obedience trials, no fodd whatsoever is permitted in the ring.

So you can get the required behavior without food, but you will need to do it incrementally so that the dog doesn't think it's no longer worth to do it.

A good way is to start reinforcing only "better than good" responses. If you say Come and your dog walks up to you, you could pet and cheer him for coming. But if you say Come and the dog runs at you as fast as he can, then you can give some food.

You never want to just stop giving treats after training a behavior with food. But it is a long process where you want to change the treats for praise. Alternating between giving food and giving praise also works.

The key thing to do is to keep food as a random occurence. If your dog never knows when he is going to get food or not, then he will try his hardest to do it all the time, in hope to get food.

 

[szecsuani]

A good way is to start reinforcing only "better than good" responses. If you say Come and your dog walks up to you, you could pet and cheer him for coming. But if you say Come and the dog runs at you as fast as he can, then you can give some food.

I never tought of this!
This is a great idea!