Should you give your dog a treat for going potty? A Step-by-Step Guide

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Many expert dog trainers use treats as the foundation of their training philosophy, known in most circles as positive reinforcement. Proponents of positive reinforcement rely on treats and other rewards (such as a toy and/or lavish praise) to help a dog understand what a person wants the animal to do. Many trainers and other experts swear by treats as an unbeatable training tool. Treats are a gentle, not to mention tasty, way to jump-start a dogs desire to learn.

That said, however, treats not should play a prominent role in housetraining for two reasons:

Giving many treats to a dog whos just learning his bathroom manners can wreak havoc with a dogs digestion and may prompt him to potty more often than would otherwise be the case.

When it comes to housetraining, a dog already has lots of incentive to learn whats expected of him. That incentive, of course, is his instinctive desire to not soil his den or his dining area.

However, plenty of people teach their dogs other commands at the same time theyre teaching their pooches proper potty deportment — and dogs will learn those other lessons more quickly if they have a tasty incentive dangling in front of their noses.

Consider the following guidelines for giving treats to the housetrainee:

Teach just before mealtimes. Give your dog his lessons in sitting, lying down, and other maneuvers just before he eats. A hungry dog will have more incentive to learn than a dog whose tummy is full. And by giving him those treats just before mealtime, you probably wont have to get him to his potty immediately after his lesson. You can just feed him and bring him to his bathroom after the meal.

Adjust the main course. Many treats — especially the commercial variety — are incredibly fattening. If youre giving your dog commercial goodies during his other lessons, you need to reduce the portions you put in his dish at meal times. Otherwise, your pooch will pork out quickly.

Easy does it. If youre using treats for training, soft-pedal giving your dog extra goodies at other times — no matter how much he might beg for them. That way, you wont put his gastrocolic reflex on overdrive.

Those of you who decide to add treats to your dogs diet will find an incredible assortment of goodies to choose from. Regular supermarket aisles, pet boutique floor space, print catalog pages, and online pet store bandwidth are clogged with culinary offerings designed to please the most discriminating canine palate.

Following are some of the more common types of commercial treats.

Biscuits and cookies. From the been-around-forever offerings of Purinas Milk Bones to the elevated gourmet fare of Three Dog Bakery, biscuits and cookies jump-start the appetites of countless canines. The fact that most dogs love scarfing down biscuits and cookies gives these products a big advantage; another is that their small sizes make them easy for dogs to chew and digest. In addition, their crunchy textures provide good chewing exercise for dogs and can even help clean a canines canines (as well as his other teeth).

The downside? Many biscuits and cookies are loaded with calories. Just as fast-food chicken can add inches to your waistline, so can too many cookies add unwanted poundage to your pooch. In addition, some treats can upset the nutritional balance that commercial dog foods offer.If youre worried about upsetting the nutritional balance offered by your dogs commercial food, try a treat that carries the same product name as the main food product. Science Diet, which is manufactured by Hills, and California Natural, which is manufactured by Innova, are just two product lines that include treats designed to dovetail with their regular dog foods.Do not ever, ever give your dog anything that contains chocolate. Although most dogs like it (at least the smell!), chocolate contains an ingredient thats toxic to them. Even a small amount can put your dog in dire distress and can even kill him.

Chew treats. Most dogs adore chomping on chew treats made of rawhide, pigs ears, horses hooves, and other animal parts. In fact, some may adore them a little too much. These chewing maniacs may gnaw off and swallow big chunks of such treats, and those chunks can cause internal injuries. Even small pieces of these treats can cause digestive upsets. Bottom line: Balance your dogs delight in these treats with his tolerance for their downside. If your dog has a sensitive stomach, dont offer them at all.

If you enjoy making treats for yourself and the other people in your household, you may also enjoy making treats for your canine family member. Homemade treats offer several advantages over commercial fare, the biggest being that you have much more control than is the case if you rely on a manufacturer. When you make treats yourself, you know which ingredients (and how much of each) go into the treat — an important consideration if, for example, your canine companion suffers from food allergies. You can also control the size of the treat so that its just right for your particular dog.

Like the idea of giving your dog homemade goodies, but dont know where to begin? Mosey on over to the Google search engine. Type “dog treat recipes” into the keyword box. Then watch Google instantaneously dig out more than 300 sites that have multiple recipes to try on your four-legged friend. One caution, though: Most of these sites dont include any nutritional analyses — so feed sparingly, no matter how much your dog loves the results of your efforts. And if youre not virtually inclined, your public library undoubtedly has plenty of books on dog treats for you to peruse.

Yes, you can give your dog treats without necessarily causing him to put on excess poundage. Here are some possibilities:

Vegetables. Many dogs adore raw or frozen vegetables, and because theyre so low in calories, they make a terrific treat for the plumper pooch. Good veggies to try are carrots, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and green beans. Make sure that you offer small pieces, though, so that your four-legged friend can digest those greens and yellows easily. Be aware that vegetables contain fiber, which acts as a laxative. If you give your pooch too many veggies, hell need to poop a lot more often.

Rice cakes. They may seem utterly devoid of taste to you, me, and other human gourmands — but otherwise discriminating dogs go nuts over the prospect of getting a piece of rice cake.

Low-cal commercial treats. Some pet food manufacturers offer low-calorie versions of their usual dog treats. Try giving some to your dog if he doesnt go for the veggies or rice cakes.

The “you’ve got a yard or a dog old enough to go outside” program

Then you’re ready to start. Here are the three steps to fail-proof housetraining:

1. Keep your dog in her crate, with a few stuffed chewtoys to keep her entertained, when you’re not playing with her or watching her closely. This is also where she’ll sleep. A crated pup will “hold it” to avoid soiling her sleeping area.

2. Release your puppy or dog from the crate every hour and quickly run her–on leash if necessary–to a toilet area outside. It’s best to use the same area each time so pick a spot that’s convenient for poop-scooping. Tell her to eliminate, using a phrase that you don’t use in normal conversation, such as “Go pee or poop!” or “Do your business!” Give her about three minutes to go, standing still and letting her circle, which is normal dog behavior, before eliminating. Most puppies will pee at each bathroom break, and poop every two to three breaks.

3. Praise her enthusiastically immediately after she pees or poops and reward her with freeze-dried liver treats. It’s a good idea to stash some treats in a screw-top jar near the toilet area so you’ll have them close at hand. Offer one treat for going anywhere outside, two treats for going within five yards of the exact area you want the dog to use, three treats for within two yards, and five treats for a bull’s eye.

After she’s gone, take her back inside for a play or training session for a half hour or so. If your dog’s old enough to safely venture into the outside world (three months of age at the earliest), take her for a post-poop walk as an additional reward.

Also, if you’re puppy is a rescue and particular puppies coming from a puppy mill where they’ve always eliminated directly in their crate, this process could be more lengthy. Just put these procedures in place, have patience and keep being consistent. Overtime your puppy will figure out it’s much more pleasant to go potty outside then in the house or in their crate.

By the way, house training isn’t just for puppies. Even adult dogs who are “house trained” can have issues in their new environment. Dogs don’t necessarily generalize very well so it may take a few weeks for your new dog to become acclimated to your home and the new routine. These tips are appropriate for both puppies and older dogs new to your home environment.

Basically a puppy should be always under direct supervision or in a contained location. They should either be in their crate, in a puppy-safe playpen area, attached to you by a leash, or under direct supervision (your eyes are always on the puppy). This is for every day, all day until they are completely potty trained and have learned good and polite behaviors. It’s also a wonderful way to be able to reward (e.g. reinforce) all of the good choices they make every day.

Dogs are learning constantly (life is just one constant experiment for your dog!) and puppies begin learning the new rules of the house the minute they come into your home. Many behaviors are established during the first two or three weeks that a new dog comes into your home. It’s during this key time period that you have your biggest opportunity to help your puppy understand that a home is different then living outside. Actually potty training can be relatively easy to train if you just know a few simple techniques.

An eight-week old puppy needs to go out, on average, about every two hours but it could be up to 17 times a day for a young puppy. Every puppy’s needs will vary and that’s why it’s so important for you to observe your puppy and determine their best house training schedule. In general a puppy can be in their crate a total of one hour for every month of age plus one hour during the day. So a 12 week old puppy can be in their crate for approximately four hours during the daytime. So if you’re gone during the day it would be best if you had your puppy in either a puppy safe room with newspapers or pee pads or in an x-pen so that they have more room to move around if they do need to potty while you’re out.Two puppies playing ball

The BIGGEST Mistake People Make With Puppy House Training

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A common question you might ask when you start training your dogs is: When can I stop giving them treats? Some owners are in a hurry to put the treats away because they see it as proof that their dog really knows how to do something. In reality, you don’t need to ever completely phase out treats and rewards.

It’s important to keep reinforcing your dog for a job well done, whether it’s at puppy kindergarten or when working on advanced competition skills. By pairing rewards like treats and toys/play with learning, you’ll be able to help your dog understand new skills faster while also building their enjoyment and enthusiasm for training in general. As your dog becomes more experienced, you can begin to shift how frequently you treat or reward them, but it always should be part of training. Just like you don’t go to work for free, your dog doesn’t want to work for free either. It’s important to make training fun and enjoyable regardless of whether we’re working on basic obedience skills around the house or training a sport.

There’s a difference between using treats as a reward and using them for luring. Luring, which is a useful training method for teaching some new skills, refers to using the treat in front of your dog’s nose to get them to follow it to perform a specific behavior. For example, when teaching a puppy to sit on cue, you can put the treat on their nose and then, while they’re still sniffing at the treat, raise your hand so their nose goes up and their bottom naturally goes down into the sit position. With luring, your dog is following a treat into position and then getting the treat. When training, it’s generally best to phase out luring early and use a smaller visual cue instead. Rewarding is different because instead of following the treat, your dog is getting “paid” with a reward.

One reason why many people are in such a hurry to stop treating their dogs while training is the idea that using food/treats as part of training is just a bribe. Really, rewards are just a way to communicate with your dog. There will be moments when you’ll ask your dog to do a cue and you won’t have a treat on you. But because you have built up a strong reinforcement history, they know that the reward is coming, and will perform the cue. By consistently pairing verbal praise with rewards like treats, we build our dog’s understanding and enjoyment of the training process and sports/activities, even when we don’t have a treat in hand and the reward is delayed.

Ultimately, the frequency of treating dogs is a personal decision. But as your dog becomes more experienced with a specific skill or activity, you can start to randomize and vary the rate of reinforcement.

If you’re walking your dog, eventually you might choose to give them a lot of verbal praise but only pull out treats to mark/reward their good behavior in more challenging moments such as if you’re walking past a dog that is barking at your dog. When you first start taking your dog on walks, you’ll be consistently treating a lot for skills like loose-leash walking, ignoring things on the sidewalk, passing dogs and people, etc. When phasing out treats, you’ll want to work at your dog’s pace. Remember that needing or wanting to use more treats than someone else doesn’t mean your dog is less trained.

Don’t just vary the rate of reinforcement—also diversify the kinds of rewards you offer your dog. Experiment with what is most rewarding to them in terms of treats, food, toys, and games. Dogs have individual preferences, so what is highly rewarding for one dog might be less rewarding for another. Keep a range of treats and rewards with you for different situations.

For example, when practicing tricks your dog knows while you’re in your living room, their regular kibble might be a great reward. But if you’ve taken your dog to a busy outdoor market to walk and train, you may want something they find more high value like string cheese, hot dogs, or soft and smelly treats. For toy-motivated dogs, you can incorporate toys and games like tug or fetch as a reward when training.