Now that you’ve welcomed your puppy to your home, it is time to start training. Treats are the most used reward when training, as food is the biggest motivator for puppies and dogs. Using treats as a reward helps them build trust with you as their owner. To build trust, you have to assure your puppy that this new environment they’re in is a safe one. If you’re a first-time adopter, you may be wondering what the best practices for training and building trust are. Here is Blissful Paws’ guide for using treats to train and build trust with your puppy.
The Best Treats for Puppies
Treats motivate learning, reinforce behavior, and strengthen the bond between you and your puppy. We encourage owners to start training as early as possible, as puppies are eager to learn and good at observing their environments. Treats for puppies should be single ingredients (no additives, preservatives, sugar, etc.), nutritious (Omega-3, Collagen, and B Vitamins), and delicious so it will feel more like a reward. Puppies also love meat, so meat-based treats work well. Your puppy must like the treat for it to be a good reinforcer. When training, use smaller bite-sized treats that are specifically used for training dogs.
Using Treats in Training
In our experience, we have noticed that puppies will always desire food as a reward, which makes treats a good reinforcer for training. When training, offer a treat after your puppy does a desired action and give a verbal cue that what they did was right. Give them praise when they complete a desired behavior, it will encourage them to continue to do it. Puppies often get distracted, and using treats and praise when training can help them understand that listening to you is better than turning their attention elsewhere. For this to be effective, you need to be consistent with your training schedule. If you are not routinely training your puppy, it can confuse them and they won’t learn good behaviors as quickly.
Don’t Bribe Your Puppy
Bribing your puppy is showing them a treat to persuade them to do a desired action. We recommend you don’t do this, only show and give your puppy the treat after the desired action has been completed. If you are bribing your puppy, they will only engage with you or practice good behaviors if you are holding a treat. Keep the treat out of their sight until after they perform the good behaviors. You should only reward them if they deserve it.
Keep Up Positive Reinforcement
Using positive reinforcement will encourage your puppy to repeat good behavior and desired actions. Using treats will help your puppy associate good behavior with a reward, prompting them to do it more frequently. Along with giving treats, make sure to praise your puppy verbally for completing the desired actions. This will create a positive experience for the puppy, letting them have a more positive attitude towards training. We recommend you keep up this positive experience by always ending training sessions on a high note. If you end training when you are frustrated, your puppy can associate training with those negative emotions.
Give in Moderation
Give treats to your puppy in moderation, as giving them too many can result in overfeeding. If your puppy is overfed, it can cause weight gain and health issues in the future. They also won’t want to eat their healthier meals if you give them too many treats. Monitor how much you give them, as you don’t want them to eat too many daily calories. Training treats should be no more than 10% of the food your puppy eats daily. You can lessen the amount of treats you give in training as your puppy progresses, instead use praise and playtime as primary rewards.
How to Build Trust With Your Puppy
Sometimes puppies in a new situation take time to warm up to their new family. Building trust with your puppy creates a predictable, safe, and secure environment for your puppy, strengthening your and your puppy’s bond. In our experience, we’ve learned that puppies need lots of love, and building trust is all about building their confidence. You build trust by creating positive experiences through treats, praise, and playing with them to let them forget about anything that is stressing them out. Using treats for training builds a positive association with you as their owner. It helps them trust that positive things will happen when they listen to you.
How to Know if Your Puppy Trusts You
Reading your puppy’s body language will help you determine if they trust you or not. We’ve learned that if they trust you, their body language will be more relaxed, excited, and they will wag their tails. If they do not trust you yet, they may be more tense and avoidant. Be consistent with the positive environment you are creating, it will help them build their trust and confidence in you. When your puppy trusts you, they will seek out any opportunity to interact with you. Reading their body language reassures them that you are listening to them, therefore they will listen to you.
Using treats for training is vital for building trust with your puppy. It reinforces the positive experience you want them to have, which reassures them that the new environment they are in is safe. To learn more about caring for your new puppy, check out Blissful Paws’ puppy care page. If you’re looking to adopt, check out our available golden retriever, golden doodle, and mini golden doodle puppies waiting for their forever families. Contact us today if you have any questions. We look forward to giving your family a moment of bliss with our puppies!
