Giving my dog treats turns him insane!

[Pavlina Ortiz]

Hi everyone, allow me first to introduce myself. My name is Pavlina and my dogs name is Simon. I am sure glad I found this forum because we do have few issues to resolve! ;) I will tell more about us later....

I have a question about giving treats. I know giving treats is good reward during training, but it seems to be a BIG distruction during our training! As soon as my dog finds our I have treats in my pocket/hand he goes insane and will NOT listen to me! He will actually do the exact opposite - he will sit, lie down, and sit again, and roll over, and crawl and everything together before I even ask him to do so! He will constantly try to sniff my hand and get the treat. If I ask him to heal, we will sit in front of me not next to me.

SO looong time ago I desided NOT to give him any treats during training him. Just praising him a lot and it seems to work. But now I need to teach him more and I need to use treats to motivate him more.
How should I avoid that kind of behaviour again? I do not give him treats every time I praise him either.

Any advice would be appreciated! :p

[Alberta Hanko]

Hi Pavlina - I am not a trainer, but when I saw what your Simon does, trying to get that treat, I am wondering--Have you tried any "free shaping" with him? He sure sounds like he would be a genius at that. Anyway, I did have this problem with Linus, and then began to clicker train him. I know there is an article here about charging the clicker. You have a bunch of tiny treats, something realy good, like small bits of chicken, hot dogs, whatever floats his boat. You click, treat--he will catch on easily. It's not hard--I did it, just takes some practice. I began by playing the "name game" with him, called his name, he would look at me, then I would click and treat. That way he works for the click--and knows a treat is coming. I also have done what you are doing, and put Linus on variable reinforcement with things he knows well, he doesn't get a treat each time.

Alberta & Linus

[Krysta Smith]

Lola gets like that sometimes, especially when it's something really good. As soon as she starts after me I put them away and ignore her. She'll go through all of her tricks to get me to give her a treat, but unless she's listening to me and doing what I've asked her to do she doesn't get anything. She's a lot better now. If I tell her to settle down she'll bark a few times and then sit in front of me and wait patiently. Ignoring her really seems to work as she loves any kind of attention, happy or not so happy :rolleyes:

[Pavlina Ortiz]

Thank you everyone. I did some search on the clicker and it does sounds very interesting. I think it's time to teach Simon some new things too and it looks like it would be very handy.

DO you buy a kit or do you just get the clicker and try to figure out how to use it yourself?

[Melissa Brunoehler]

Hi Pavlina~

I love clicker training & your pup probably will too. For anyone that wants to start clicker training I recommend finding a clicker trainer in your area & signing up for classes. If that is not possible here are 2 sites that can help you to get started.
http://www.clickertraining. com/home/
http://www.clickersolutions .com/

Each site has training book recommendations & help finding a clicker trainer.
I've been clicker training for years, so if you have questions, feel free to ask.


Thank you everyone. I did some search on the clicker and it does sounds very interesting. I think it's time to teach Simon some new things too and it looks like it would be very handy.

DO you buy a kit or do you just get the clicker and try to figure out how to use it yourself?