22 Comments on “Using TREATS to train your dog might be a HUGE MISTAKE!”

  1. With my new puppy (which is name a year old)
    I did treats, toys, and praise throughout the whole training
    I ended up using more just praise since I didn’t always have something on hand
    But it worked out perfectly
    He’s a German shepherd mix

  2. A better title to your video might be: “Using only TREATS to train your dog might be A HUGE MISTAKE ” just a thought – it’s not as melodramatic.

  3. A better title to your video might be: “Using only TREATS to train your dog might be A HUGE MISTAKE ” just a thought – it’s not as melodramatic.

  4. With my dog there are some things where treats are the only thing that works. She is REALLY dog aggressive. She had three previous owners before me. So I don’t know what happened in her past. But I absolutely cannot let her near other dogs because there will be a fight. If she sees another dog during walks the only thing that will break her fixation is putting a treat right under her nose and getting her to look at me instead. That of course only works if the other dog is far enough away. If they get close enough there is nothing I know of that will calm her down. All I can think to do is just hold on to the leash until the other dog is gone. That’s why I am irritated by off leash dogs. I can warn owners with leashed dogs that my dog is dog aggressive. But when an off leash dog runs up to us it’s really hard to avoid a fight.

  5. But Zak,I’ve seen you use treats to train a lot! 😉Seriously though, every dog is different: some dogs are foodies & some toy or play oriented. My dog is a foodie so I do use treats, but not all the time. I’m a games based trainer & a lot of the time the reward is a game (he has no interest in toys). I love your videos,but I think maybe this one should have been less ‘don’t use treats’ and more ‘there are more ways to reward your dog than treats’. Yes I know you say it’s ok at the end…nice one Zak ☺️

  6. Yeah nope! My dog will not work for play, he will give you the middle finger if you would try to. He actually has a set amount of times he will get a toy for you, it’s 5 times, after that he will look at you like you’re a idiot and tell you you can get it yourself while he walks away all annoyed at you for excepting him to get his toy a 6 time 😅😂

    For food however he will do anything! Even step in to water and he hates water with a passion! But hold a tiny piece of food in front of him and he will walk though a puddle or something similar not extremely deep but still wet 😎
    So yeah don’t say stupid things like this, not all dogs are toy obsessed border collies 😉

    1. I think what he meant was try different positive methods because many people jump straight to only treats when play could be more effective for that dog. There was a line Zak said in the video that implied this to me but I don’t remember the exact words. It’s more of a take advantage of toys and play to train, as they can be very effective, but not all dogs will train with this.

  7. My border collie loves jumping for bubbles. She asks for me to blow bubbles for her.
    It’s also a good way to keep a bubble loving dog close to you on a walk! I had one border collie who would round me up and not let me walk forward until I had blown more for him. (I was known as the bubble lady)

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