Let’s talk about treats! And no not the Halloween kind. Of course I’m referring to treats you give your furry ones.

Believe it or not, there is SO much information I want to share about this topic. Everything from the different kinds, when and how to give it, and how often. I won’t cover it all today but I hope to give little nuggets over the next few months.

I want to start by sharing this analogy: treats are to pets as salaries are to humans.

I heard this many years ago from a source I can’t recall exactly but it has stuck with me ever since. This analogy inspired one of my current treat philosophies: regardless of what kind of pet I parent, I will never stop rewarding their good behavior with treats.

This doesn’t mean I’m constantly offering treats. In fact, I might only offer 1 treat per day (I will elaborate in a future email about what kind of treat I reference here). I simply recognize their immense value and use them to my advantage whenever possible. Some pets are not food-motivated and don’t enjoy treats (my cat Tupac is annoyingly not about them and only screams at me for his expensive prescription food…sigh). To these pets, I may offer something else like a tennis ball, tug toy, or laser play time.

I digress.

So what does the analogy above mean exactly? Well, you as a human probably have a job you worked hard to get. You may or may not love what you do but you get compensated for it in the form of money. If you’re a salaried employee, you can expect a paycheck at a certain time each month.

Let’s say that after two years of working at a company and excelling at your position, your boss comes to you and says “Tanya, you’ve done such an amazing job that we no longer feel the need to pay you for your hard work. You passed and keep it up!”

I’m sure none of us would want that to happen. It makes no sense.

That’s precisely why I think it’s somewhat cruel to suddenly stop treating your pet after they learn a new behavior you’ve been teaching them over some training sessions.

I’m not saying you continuously treat each time a dog sits when they can now advance to another command. But one of the MOST important and often under-emphasized steps to training a pet is the maintenance piece. What happens AFTER your pet has learned a behavior. If you want your pet to keep doing that behavior, you can’t stop practicing it and you certainly don’t stop reinforcing it when they offer the behavior. When first learning something, you will treat them every single time. However, as time passes and they learn the behavior, perhaps you’ll start to treat every 2x, 5x, 10x, before moving onto another behavior. That’s ok as long as you continue to reward wanted behaviors!

It’s something I have observed countless times. I hear a pet received training as a puppy or when they first joined the family, but no longer do that behavior with any accuracy or frequency. Why could that be? I’d venture to guess the family likely stopped reinforcing the behavior. I don’t know about you, but I would not continue working at a company if they suddenly decided to stop paying me for being a skilled employee.

I hope next time your pet offers a behavior you once taught them or a new one you’d like them to keep up with, you will consider rewarding them with treats for a job well done. They deserve it!

Stay Comfy,

Tanya