Hi....my 14 week black labrador is my first ever puppy and my husband and i cannot agree on whether we should use treats as rewards when training ?? My husband does not agree at all with treats and believes that a dog should only ever eat is meals and that is it. ( i agree on that ) but I think treats would help with training and then once she is trained you can stop the treats ???? We are trying to get her to recall when off the lead....she is great on coming back when there is no distractions but when there is she does not listen in the slightest so I was thinking that using a treat would encourage her better ??? When she sees another dog or person she will bolt after them to say hello no matter how far away and I was thinking that using treats in the recalling training would make her come back better ????? or is it better to work on the recalling with no treats ???

Definitly treats

U can use treats such as bits of cheese, sasauge, liver cake, chicken .......

My both dogs been trained with treats and they learned their commands perfectly and very quick

You should use whatever motivates your dog.

I cannot understand why anyone wouldn't want to give their dog a reason for doing what they are asking. Do you expect to get paid if you go out to work? Would you do it for nothing?

If your dog loves his grub, use food rewards. If he is more play orientated, use a toy. Some situations call for different rewards; I tend to use a tuggy game to reward for recall and treats for teaching new things at home, with a tuggy game to motivate once new things have been learned.

Is there a particular reason your husband doesn't agree with treats??

I've used treats with both of mine,hot dog sausages,cheese,chicken etc,not commercial treats.
May I suggest you keep her on a training line until her recall is reliable with distractions,not all dogs are friendly, and may have issues and your dog may end up been bitten.
Not all people appriciate loose dogs approaching either,especially those with young children and those that have a genuine fear of dogs.You obviously know your dog is friendly but others don't.
With a training line you have control and can work on recall with distractions

hi Colliepoodle...I think we are concerned about the dog getting fat and expecting treats at home. At first I never wanted a labrador as all the ones i had ever seen were fat and i dont like fat dogs...the breeder said they wont get fat as long as they stick to just the 2 meals a day and no treats / human food and plenty of walks which i do agree with 99% of the time but i was wondering if using treats for recalling would be good to get her to learn it much better ??? Just dont want her getting fat or expecting treats all the time ? Which treats are better .....special dog treats or as you suggested cheese etc ???

I used treats with my Labs, they will do anything for grub!! Archie will take it or leave it, so i use toys for him.

What food is she on? If you're lucky and she's a typically greedy Lab, and she's on dry food, you might find that you can get away with using part of her usual dinner for recall etc.... there's no reason why meals have to come in a bowl all the time

If not, then you can get low-fat treats (I use the chicken flavoured strips from PAH/Tesco and cut them up small) - my dogs love those.

Remember, keep treats TINY! For general training, ie sit, down etc I use little bits of cheese or hot dog, or normal sausage which has been cut into 1cm cubes, then cut in half again. Weeny! For recall I tend to use games more, but when I was first teaching it I used extra-special treats such as liver cake and I was slightly more generous.... really you have to tailor the treats and the amounts to what your dog will work keenly for and what you're teaching

Adjust normal meals according to what treats he's had and you shouldn't have any problems with weight

Oh and to make sure that the dog doesn't expect treats all the time:

a) Make sure it ONLY gets treats when it's obeyed a command/responded to a cue and

b) Make sure that you give a command/cue, get the response and THEN give the treat, rather than brandishing the treat in a "look, look what I've got for you" way BEFORE you give a cue

I have treats in every pocket - even my bathrobe lol - so that if I suddenly say "down" to my dog she hits the floor, hoping that a treat will be forthcoming because I seem to have the ability to magic them out of nowhere (pockets must seem so odd to dogs lol) but she never pesters for treats.

When you are first teaching cues, you need to have a high rate of reinforcement so you need to be giving treats after every cue is obeyed. Later, you can start to vary the rate of reward so you are only rewarding every, say, 3 or 4 times.

What are the best treats to use for a puppy? I notice some puppy treats say you should give them to dogs under a certain age. Would a dog think a bit of their dried food is a treat?

I like the sound of using her food as part of the "treats"..and yes she is a greedy lab that totally loves her food.....she will eat her meal within a minute !!! She is on dry food so I will take a handfull with me and use that as part of her recall......I will shout " Jet come"...wait for her to come and then sit and then give her the treat ???