Why People Hate Using Food In Training

Written By Steve Courtney
Qualified & Accredited Obedience Trainer, Behaviour Consultant & Law Enforcement dog Trainer.

It is very common for people who come to see me come with a food treat pouch on, full of treats. We sit down and we discuss the issues that we have in training and I might at some stage say that we won’t be using food for this exercise. Well at once I see a surprised perhaps relieved look come over them and they ask “can I take this thing (treat pouch) off”. I say yes and they take it off and throw it to the side.

You would think that the pouch was uncomfortable or they didn’t like wearing it, but with a little bit of investigation, out comes a very common feeling.

People tell me that their dog won’t work unless they wave food in its face, no food, no work. This seems to have driven a wedge between the person and the dog as they think the dog is holding them to ransom, no food, no work. Well to understand what is going wrong, we need to go back to the start and understand the dog’s perspective of the training and the work required. Most people have been shown / taught, show the dog the treat and lure the dog into the position you want to train, when the dog gets into that position, either by luring or you place the dog in the position, you give a treat. When you repeat this enough the dog learns the exercise.

Well dogs take cue’s from various things that we may not want them to, these are called “concomitant cues”, and this means that the dog has simply taken a cue or a hint off something that is in some way connected to the exercise.

To give an example, you take your dog for a walk every day, your dog likes that walk very much, it is very rewarding to your dog. Your dog starts to look for prediction points that you are going to take him or her for a walk. Perhaps when you lock the back door, perhaps it is when you put on your joggers or perhaps it is just when you pick up the leash. Once your dog picks up this signal, he predicts that he will be going for a walk, this reward prediction starts a chain of thoughts that lead to reward and the dog will get excited, right? But what happens if you pick up the leash and just want to move it from one place to the other, or you lock the door for some other reason. Your dog picks up on this concomitant cue and gets excited for the walk.

So when you don’t take him, what happens? He may offer some behaviours that he knows will pay or he may offer behaviours you don’t like, but he knows will get your attention.

So if you consider this same principle to training with food, you can see that the dog takes its cue from you showing him the food, it isn’t that your dog won’t work without food, he is not holding you to ransom, he is simply not predicting reward because reward predictions in this exercise are cued by the presence of food. Dogs really don’t pre meditate or plan against you, they are simple, literal creatures that don’t think outside the box without some help.

So how do we proceed from here? Well the key is to stop using food as a lure, perhaps not totally but as soon as you have lured the position you want and the dog knows it, fade out the lure. Luring past the point where the dog just understands what is required, starts to build in the lure to the chain the dog needs to see to offer the behaviour.

I am going to give you an exercise to try but before I do, I will explain a number of reasons why people revert back to food luring, so you don’t fall into these traps.

1)    Asking for the target behaviour in an area of high distraction before the dog has been trained to that level. This is the most common mistake as people have a dog that will sit at home, they expect the dog to do that on the wing of an airplane when it’s in flight. Well it won’t happen because , distractions must be presented to the dog in an escalating hierarchy, reaching the dog to overcome each level, one at a time.

2)    Training the exercise in one location only. People will often tell me how well their dog works at home, or even at obedience club, but will not work like this elsewhere. Well that’sThis is because the environment has become a concomitant cue, a predictor of rewards. We specifically call this an environmental landmark. A point of reference for the dog that reminds the dog of the process to earn rewards. So do notIt is important not to lock training into one place, train in various locations around the home and then the front yard, your work perhaps, a quiet park and teach the dog all that needs to be available for this exercise to work is you and your dog.

3)    Letting the dog run the asylum. Some dogs have learned a behaviour that you like, but will not display this behaviour anywhere but a certain place, your back yard for example. Well Tthe above should explain why this is but what a lot of people do is go back to that place and practice more. This is a mistake, it is letting the dog solidify the environmental landmarks he has and this will not break this pattern. The only place this dog cannot be given the cue for the behaviour and access to that reward is where the dog will display the behaviour. Meaning he doesn’t get rewards there any longer and , to find a new way to get these rewards, he needs to overcome the environmental landmark and work where you offer him the cue.

4)    Training past the dog’s point of interest. Untrained dogs will have a short attention span, this won’t develop over night so you must only train for short periods of time. Again I see people go back to waving food in the dogs face (luring) when they have been training for 10 minutes and the dog stops responding. Recognise that the dog may be full, may have had enough rewards, may be satisfied or tired (mentally). Keep training short and only work a motivated and keen dog.

Ok now onto a very simple exercise!

Using a food treat pouch is a good idea, whilst it is comfortable to have this in front of you or on your side; a better place to wear the pouch is rotated all the way around to the back so your dog doesn’t focus on it. Start by getting a few pieces of food in your hand and then approach your dog, keep in mind the above examples of new locations, distractions etc and perhaps start in your kitchen or back yard.

Say your dog’s name happily, when your dog looks at you, mark “yes” and then hold out your hand to a place where the dog has to move forward to get the food. Only move the hand holding the food after the mark has been given.

Whilst your dog is eating the food out of your right hand for example, reach into your pouch with your left hand and get two more small pieces of food.

Your dog finishes eating and looks at you, you look away and take a few steps away from your dog, as soon as your dog breaks eye contact cue his name again, eye contact is made and you mark “yes” again, then move your left hand out so your dog can come eat and get some food in your right hand again.

Run this exercise 5 times and end by giving your dog a good scruff up and have a play.

That afternoon, a few hours later go near your dog without the treat pouch on but with a few treats in your right hand. Call his name again and when he gives you eye contact, mark “yes” and reach out to one side so he can eat the food. Praise and end training for the day.
Your dog will likely follow you now to see if he can work some more, so now it may look like you’re holding your dog to ransom, but of course you’re not.

Proceed again the next day as you did with two very short training exercises a day for 3 – 4 days, try different and random low distraction area’s so your dog will happily respond with this behaviour on cue, without needing to see, smell or be shown food.

What you have done is trained a dog to respond on cue and reinforced that behaviour with food. Now that you have a way of getting your dog’s attention, it can be of benefit to stop this training for a couple of days and then run a training session in a new, slightly distracting area for your dog, just a short 2 or 3 repetitions.

If your dog does not respond to the cue, that’s ok, put your food away and move on, don’t go try it where it will work. Take your dog somewhere else and try again. When you have your dog responding to this cue under mild distraction, climb the distraction  ladder, rung by rung until you have a dog that responds well.

It is very easy to then use a technique known as shaping to train more exercises, shaping is the dog responding to reward pressure by experimenting with behaviours.

This simply would look like, you cue your dog with his name, he looks at you and expects the mark and treat. You don’t give it to him but instead wait a moment; this will add reward pressure to the dog who will then offer another behaviour. You can with your body language step toward the dog and this may help the dog form a sit, if it does (and that is the behaviour you’re shaping) mark yes and release the food. This works well because you have already established a behaviour on cue, your dog will look at you, and there is an expected reward. Now as your dog expects the reward he will be captured in his mind and offer behaviours to try and find the right one that buys the mark. Only mark what you want to train.

This is a nice way to develop a training relationship with your dog and not end up, hating to use food.