What do your dogs go mad for? If you train them, what is the best reward they can get?

Do they prefer food rewards, a ball, the permission to 'go sniff' or 'take a dip'?

Eddy only ever responds and is motivated by food. He doesn't like toys (unless it happens to have food in), but does enjoy offlead time as a reward - unfortunately this is very limited due to his poor recall.

Takara on the other hand is very food orientated, also works well for a game of tuggy or a ball but as she never brings the ball back we tend to stick to tuggy on walks and she loves tuggy as a recall reward.
She also loves to swim so being allowed to 'go swim' is a major reinforcer.

What about your dogs? What do they consider fair 'wages'?

Ailsa recognises and responds favorably to any of the following:

'treat' (Cheese, Sausages, doggie treats, pigs ears, maltesers [aka 'teasers')
tennis 'ball'
'paddle'
'cuddle'

Ball,
treats,
Attention,

Probably in that order but he is actually more likely to concentrate on what you are wanting him to do if it is food, and what you have for him instead if it is the other 2.

Food every time for Evie! And it can be anything. She'll play with toys now and then when the mood takes her, but she doesn't see this as a treat.

Carrots for our dog he loves em.

any toy she has develpoped a fancy for its usually the most chewed,slobbery and coverd in dirt one..food she is very wierd sniffs at a bit of chicken for about 5 mins then just licks it for a while then will eat it ...sooooo not normal for a dog ???!!!.....

Carrots for our dog he loves em.

Hehe mine love carrots too!

If you asked Brude he'd tell you he only works for food, but these days we provide less of that and he gets a fuss for the most part

if we're out, the reward for good recall is mostly permission to bound off again at high speed, as he spits treats out in this scenario anyway :huh:

If he's required to walk with us a constant stream of vocal contact works best, particularly the words he associates with prancing round the showring showing off 'aren't you beautiful? Who's a gorgeous dog? Walk nice!' - you should see him puff out his chest and lift his paws into a prance :D

If we're around the house/garden then Guinness loves cheese as a treat for being good, but when we're out on his walks he loves play fetch with his ball, we have a chuckit for him too which is the best thing we got, we can actually tire him out when we reward him with that.

Sometimes treats will work with Damon (I still hate the name) but rarely, he seems to enjoy his toys but plays with them on his own and cannot really be used as a reward/ distraction. I had got him to play pull but the trainer we see says this is not a good idea at the moment so we can't play it any more :(

Words seem to be the best treat for him 'good boy' is something he knows as a reward and encourages him to walk to heel with and ''go on" with an arm pointing in the direction I want him to go when he's allowed to bound off again after recall or walking to heel.

Spent the yesterday teaching him to whine on command, he seems to caught onto it beautifully and quickly..... lets hope I don't come to regret that command, he seems to enjoy doing it when asked to!

He's got a very loud bark so I'm not going to encourage that, though he can do the quieter 'don't forget me' bark sometimes, but I'm not sure how I'd teach him how to do the two different ones on command! I hate barky dogs so I think I will leave that area well alone :lol:

:lol: Evei,

Takara knows 'say woof' which is a loud bark and 'whisper' which is a little grunt... here:

Say woof: http://youtube.com/watch?v=gQjP9PpLjbw

Whisper: (It's not a great example as you can barely hear the cue or the response! http://youtube.com/watch?v=5VQk-v_3jh8

As far as teaching a quieter bark, encourage a bark and reward any bark you get regardless, then as he gets the idea, start only rewarding the quieter barks (these needn't be quiet - just quieter. Gradually build on getting quieter and quieter barks, he'll learn barking loudly gets nothing but barking quietly gets rewarded.
(The same way you train for faster recalls, faster or more accurate agility trials etc - selective reinforcement :D )

I will have to try that on the recall. He always comes just a little slowly sometimes, and speed is the essence if I spot another dog coming our way! :)

If you asked Brude he'd tell you he only works for food, but these days we provide less of that and he gets a fuss for the most part

if we're out, the reward for good recall is mostly permission to bound off again at high speed, as he spits treats out in this scenario anyway :huh:

If he's required to walk with us a constant stream of vocal contact works best, particularly the words he associates with prancing round the showring showing off 'aren't you beautiful? Who's a gorgeous dog? Walk nice!' - you should see him puff out his chest and lift his paws into a prance :D

Must admit we do a lot of this too

Sausages hands down every time

Sometimes treats will work with Damon (I still hate the name) but rarely, he seems to enjoy his toys but plays with them on his own and cannot really be used as a reward/ distraction. I had got him to play pull but the trainer we see says this is not a good idea at the moment so we can't play it any more :(Tug is a very complex game full of dog status implications

when we play tug with Brude he can never be allowed to win or he believes he's actually won and moves up the pack a rung. Instead we have to say 'leave' and throw the item for him. He's not a retrieving breed though, so he then needs to be told 'bring it here' which he does with great celebration, and we can start tug again :thumbsup:

I find tuggy fantastic but your trainer is right Evei, it's not for all dogs.

Excitement can quickly turn into aggression and there are certain dogs I recommend people don't play it with. I am also very wary of small children playing tug, especially with large dogs. I always recommend small children keep to calm games and grooming instead of games that excite like tuggy.

Takara loves tuggy and we usually play at least once a day, she wins, I win - it never really matters because, like most dogs she plays it to feel me on the other end so her 'winning' is not actually at all reinforcing! She brings it straight back pushing it into me to play again because it's just no fun on your own!

Some dogs, particularly, I find dogs that have not had much access to toys - just want the toy, not the game. So letting them take the toy like I do with Takara can be a disaster. You then have a dog that puts his all into the game and learns that mum'll let go when he refuses to and then he can take his toy away to hide/chew etc.

Of course, you've also got the ancestral wild dog relevance of tug... tuggy is actually a very important part of dogs living together in the wild and a great way for them to bond (and hence a good way for owner and dog to bond) because it is how they get their food.
They have a carcass way too big for a dog to devour by himself so the pack helps out, everybody has a tug at it until it's all ripped up into manageable chunks and everybody gets a piece. Everybody wins and nobody becomes competitive - just not so hungry any more!

But... all that said you have to be very careful with large or exciteable dogs. I often let Takara 'win' particularly when she won't give it back because she actually wants me to carry on tugging so instead I let go. You don't leave when I say - we don't play.

However, she also knows 'leave' and it's very rare she gets so into it that she forgets herself and I have to stop the game. She has to know 'leave' and 'careful!' because she has big teeth! I also don't want her getting so into it that her arousal turns to aggression which is the case with many dogs.

Hehe :lol: I should point out that whilst I was writing the above, Takara has brought a tug toy, laid it at my feet and is laid waiting for a game... Bless!

I had never let him 'win' and he always lets go whenever I ask and then I throw it for him, as I knew that this was important before hand. He gave up most times and just lets me have it which was not much fun!

He has never shown any signs of aggression with humans apart from growling at strangers as they entered the house, which is near enough stopped now, but I do worry it's just covering up his warning to strangers. He is extremely gentle, he does not ever mouth either, he happily brings toys to me (will not fetch, he’s more of a chaser) though I have to ignore that too unless I've instigated it!

I fancy getting one of them flexible poles that cats have as I know he would love to chase a 'fly' around, I just need a giant one! He does a really strange stretch that I never remember my old dog doing, like a cat with his back arched in the centre!

Hope you and T enjoy your game Lotti!

if you want a big pole those collapsible fishing poles are great for the garden

Why did you trainer recommend you didn't play then Evei? I'm only interested to know as it always helps to know of different situations :D

a cup of tea for my dog she sooooooo loves it

offer her a cuppa or a chop shed go for cuppa first bless her

Why did you trainer recommend you didn't play then Evei? I'm only interested to know as it always helps to know of different situations

I'm guessing it is because of his aggression to dogs, so not to encourage him to stamp on things/ hunt them? I can play if I call him over to start it (leader thing, if you believe in it). It very hard as he comes up to me and then sits looking at me wagging his tail His tail seems to wag an awful lot more now, when we first got him it rarely wagged! He recognised one of my mates yesterday as they walked up the drive, gave them a quick bark then a nice tail wag meeting... no growling so I think he's starting to feel much more secure with visitors. We have been practising!

He's so placid and well behaved in the house and out and about it is very hard ever to pull him up on things so the only time he's not well behaved is if a dog comes into sight and then his behaviour is very bad, like a completely different dog, all instruction goes out of the window and it's hard to find anything to reward. Different dogs seem to cause him to react more violently, though I'm unable to work out the trigger, seems to be a bit random He's more likely to lunge if the other dog has not yet seen him, as though he's getting in first, I have a feeling his been allowed (in the sense that they didn’t control him) to attack then been told off/hit. He's also started crying to get to them as though he wants to play, but I know he wouldn’t once he got there!