# food rewards



## nutmeg07 (Sep 14, 2013)

Hi there, 
I'm planning to do clicker training with my future puppy, and in general including reward-based training heavily into my routine. I have read from a couple of books and different sources, that a puppy could be fed its entire daily food ration as reward during the day, as well as from chew toys etc, without actually giving him a traditional bowl of food as such. This I understand would only lasts a couple of weeks/months, and after that moving onto proper meal times. I have no problem with this, and actually find it quite interesting, as my puppy will be with me during the day and therefore opportunities for little training sessions will present themselves easily. 
However, my old family dog used to beg from the table and bark for food, it was so annoying, and of course purely brought in by the fact that my parents, as well as the kids, fed her from the table while eating to make her shut up : Anyhow, I know I don't want to fall in that trap again, obviously feeding treats as a training tool is a completely different thing, but will the dog learn to expect food from me, for example when I sit down to have dinner? And how do I then correct that, if not by asking the dog to perform some other behaviour - and therefore reward her with a treat, in which case, it all paid itself off for the dog?
This was kind of hard to put into words, hope someone understood?
Thanks guys!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

When mine are puppies they are in their crate during family meals. After they have learned some commands, like Place they get to be out.


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## CatK (May 29, 2013)

In my experience, as long as you never treat from the table, the dog will learn that they might be able to 'earn' rewards from you most of time, but they're onto a loser during table time so they might as well not bother. 

Our dog is 6 months, and we use his kongs as a reward for doing a good bathroom session before we put him in his crate... 'pee time' and 'well done! Now in your bed' and will dash in there happily. He has small meals and the rest of the food is still used as rewards whilst out on walks, playing 'find it' and 'leave it' to tire him out at lunch, and to teach 'heel' on the way to and from the park. Some days there isn't enough left for dinner but we always have cooked veg, bananas and a raw egg on hand if he's looking hungry (always!).

If you don't want him/her to beg then never never never feed from the table (or the kitchen counter), we find it's best not to even look at him when we're at the table or he thinks it's an invitation to play/beg. So he can do what he wants when we're eating, as long as he's not staring at us. That applies both under the table or on the other side of the room. If he's paying too much attention and begging then he gets popped in his crate or out of the room. So now he mainly just plays with his toys while we eat. I don't mind him underfoot, he's lovely and warm, but he has to be doing something else.

So in answer to your question, yes to start with he/she will think that you always give treats, including when you sit to eat. But they learn quickly, and if they never get food from the table they won't bother. Doesn't mean they won't try a little beg occasionally to see if it works, as long as they don't get anything for their efforts they'll give up faster each time!

Best of luck and enjoy!


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## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

Ruby gets zilch from the table and doesn't beg as we've never given her treats whilst we're at the table. She does occasionally gets the scraps as a top up in her food bowl if I deem it something suitable, ie veggies and meat as long as it's got a low salt level. Most of our food is home cooked and caught so I'm okay about this.


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

Willie never, ever gets food from the dinner table, and so he never begs from the table. 

When humans are eating, he just goes somewhere else and rests. If I have an especially tasty morsel that I want to treat him with, I take it to him after the meal, and therefore, he is being rewarded for staying put. Also, if I have one or two ounces of high quality protein left over (meat, chicken, fish), I sometimes mix it in with his dinner. Just never feed your dog/puppy from the table.


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## Nelly (Feb 7, 2013)

I hate to be the one to throw a spanner in the works here, but Nelly has never ever been fed from the table or counter and begs relentlessly. She knows 'go to bed' but has been resisting lately in her 11 month of teenagerdom :

I put it down to her age as she was very good before. We are now crating during family meals if she is continuing to beg, it can be very annoying, especially with all the training behind us to prevent that behaviour.

I think the best thing to do is start from the beginning and if you experience a little teenage regression go back to basics until they are out of the other end. 

I'm not sure what has caused Nelly's begging, if anything directly at all. She has been trained positively with food rewards and I actually don't think it has anything to do with it. 

I have had no experience with treat based rewarding replacing the traditional bowl of food. Would you be rewarding with what you would give as a meal?


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## mswhipple (Mar 7, 2011)

I think the main difference is this:

Nelly @ 11 months old
Willie @ almost 7 years

Nelly will understand soon enough, but she is still a puppy.   

Sometimes I give Willie special treats not as any kind of reward, but just because I love him. He always seems so grateful, regardless of the circumstances.


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## Ksana (Mar 30, 2013)

Marcus is now nine months old and he expects his bowl of food to be still served to him twice a day (even he will 'earn' his food during the day). We serve food keeping in mind he will have lots of rewards (most of his daily norm) being fed to him during his training. He loves to be able to earn his food (yes, we clicker train). We don't crate Marcus during the family meals and he does not beg (he might ask to play with him though if we look at him). Although we prepare his food on the kitchen countertop/ kitchen table, we click trained him to (as soon as he sees us working with his food bowl) politely seat and wait. He will then continue sitting there until after we give him a command to eat.


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## Darcy1311 (May 27, 2012)

Darcy gets occasional treats, but I remember taking her to a gundog trainer who never gave food rewards, saying a mother dog cannot reward her pup with treats, but shows affection as a reward instead...
I think that makes sense......of course this is only my opinion. ???  ;D


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## Ksana (Mar 30, 2013)

Darcy1311 said:


> Darcy gets occasional treats, but I remember taking her to a gundog trainer who never gave food rewards, saying a mother dog cannot reward her pup with treats, but shows affection as a reward instead...
> I think that makes sense......of course this is only my opinion. ???  ;D


Agreed in this instance. We only use food rewards for Marcus' competitive obedience and conformation practice. No need for food rewards in the field. Field work and our support are itself rewarding. In fact, Marcus as soon as starts hunting, he stops looking at food altogether. On his field (natural ability/ hunting aptitude evaluation) trial test day, he did not drink or eat on the very hot summer day, until after his one-hour field search evaluation part was over. Only then he accepted some water. Food was accepted when the entire test was over (start time was at 8 AM and all parts of the test ended at 5 PM).


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