Myth: “If you use treats too much, your dog will only listen when you have food.”

This is one of the most common myths in dog training.

There’s a big difference between bribing a dog with food and reinforcing a behaviour when it happens.

In this week’s lessons, your dog isn’t being shown a treat and asked to follow it. Instead, we’ve waited for them to make a good choice first — looking towards you, moving towards you or catching you up — and then rewarding that choice.

That’s how learning works.

Behaviours that are reinforced are more likely to happen again.

The aim isn’t to carry food around forever or reward every single behaviour for the rest of your dog’s life either. We’re using food now to build a strong reinforcement history, so choosing you starts to become a habit.

And, as that behaviour becomes stronger, rewards can become more varied and less predictable on differing reinforcement schedules.

So if you hear somebody saying, ”treat training is just bribing the dog” then no. It’s a big fat myth!

Using food or treats properly doesn’t create a dog who “only listens for food” when it’s built correctly.

It creates a dog who has learned that engaging with you is worthwhile until those behaviours get proofed and automated in the dogs mind as the right thing to do.