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Fading Out Treats
Don’t get stuck using treats forever. Learn to fade them out over time.
Introduction - Read This First!
While treats are incredibly important in dog training, they should NOT be used forever. Treats should always be used to teach new things to a dog in a positive and encouraging manner. But this doesn’t mean you’ll have to carry around a treat pouch forever. There’s just a few rules you need to follow on when to use treats, and also when NOT to use treats:
Use Treats For Teaching NEW Things
Treats are totally necessary when you’re teaching:
1. A new command
2. An old command in new distractions
3. An old command that you’re progressing to a harder level
4. You want faster results or more focus
Outside of these situations, it’s best to slowly use fewer treats over time. This is called “Fading Out” the treats. For now, make sure you use treats to make sure your dog is having a fun time learning!
Rule 1: Use Treats For New Commands
Pro Trainer Principles:
Reward New Behaviors And Tricks With Treats Every Single Time!
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New Behaviors Need To Be Reinforced Every Time
Whenever teaching your dog a new behavior, or teaching a harder version of an old behavior, you must go back to using treats for every single repetition. For new behaviors, a dog will need to know that they’re doing it correctly, so a treat will be needed every time they get something right.
You don’t want to get stuck using treats forever, so start fading them out as soon as you can, but always go back to lots of treats when you change things up!
In Positive Reinforcement, you learned that when you give your dog treats or praise for doing something good, they want to do those good things more often. Makes sense, right??
What your dog will learn is that this is how you communicate they did something right. Don’t worry about using fewer treats in the beginning of teaching something new. This will just be way too confusing!
Rule 2: Use Treats For Lots Of Distractions
Pro Trainer Principles:
Build The Behavior First By Whatever Means Necessary!
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Use Treats First To Teach The Behavior, Then Fade Them Out Quickly
Every new behavior you teach your dog needs to start by using treats. Whether it’s a new command, more distractions, or a harder/different version of an old command. Once they know it, then you can start fading out treats little by little.
If you’re doing any “behavior modification”, you should use whatever tools, treats, management, etc. that you need to improve the behavioral problem. Once that’s done, then you can worry about fading back these tools over time. In the beginning your main concern should be getting the behavior change to be a habit, not using as few treats as possible or using less effort.
With enough training your dog will learn to love to listen to you all the time, but right now that might be very difficult for them.
Help make it easier to understand a new behavior or how to ignore distractions. Once they’ve learned it, then you can start using fewer and fewer treats.
Rule 3: Use High-Value Treats When Things Get Tough
Pro Trainer Principles:
Only Use High-Value Treats When You Need To. Don’t Waste The Best Treats On The Easy Stuff!
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Save The Good Stuff For Emergencies!
When you’re doing any kind of training, you want to be able to use higher value treats when the work gets tougher. Maybe your dog is getting bored of treats or tired. Or maybe you need more focus because of lots of distractions. In these situations you need to be able to use more interesting (higher value) treats. This won’t happen if your dog is spoiled by getting amazingly tasty treats all the time. Save the stinkiest high value treats for when you NEED them!
Rule: When possible, use the lowest value treats (like kibble!) you can get away with.
Make sure to only use “high value” treats when there is a good reason to – like new distractions or doing fear training. You should always aim to use the lowest value you can when possible, otherwise your dog may get spoiled on the high-value treats, and when training gets tough, you won’t have anything better to use!
Rule 4: Use Treats For Faster Learning
Sometimes normal treats just aren’t enough. Sometimes you’re working on a new trick and your dog isn’t hungry, or they’re tired. Now is the time to use high-value treats! Whether it’s better focus, a faster sit, or a tough new trick, tastier treats may get your dog to work harder and faster.
Rule 5: When You're Doing Something Easy, Use Fewer Treats!
The whole reason to use treats when your dog is learning something is so that they know they’re doing it right! Once they’ve learned the new behavior, you should immediately start to use fewer treats. It’s also a very good idea to replace the treats with praise and petting.
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