6. Wean Off Treats Over Time

“My dog will only listen to me if I have the best treat for dog training in hand.”

I’ve heard this exact quote plenty of times from parents who have spent countless hours and dollars on their pets.

I found a way to combat that problem. Once your dog gets the hang of a particular behavior, let’s say “sit”, it’s important to start making him guess about getting treats.

Let’s say for example Buddy can sit at 7/10. For this particular exercise, I would start giving Buddy a treat every other sit, or even less. When you do this, you keep Buddy guessing (and interested in you) as to whether or not a treat will be coming. Then, as time goes by, just like when you are teaching a new trick, you can increase the number of treats he gets.

Over time, our dog will learn to sit when we give him a command. No matter what, he’ll always sit when we say “sit.