Types of rewards for your dog
The first association when it comes to rewarding dogs is usually food, such as treats. In fact, this is the most popular method and will very often suit the dog and therefore fulfil the function of a reward. Of course, the subject is not at all simple and simply giving your dog a treat in its mouth can be boring if it always looks the same. Apart from rewarding with food, we have a number of other options. Please read the article to find out all of them.
Eating
Do you know what your dog likes to eat the most? There is a very easy way to find out! Prepare a few plates and put different kinds of snacks on each one – be sure to check that your dog can eat the foods in question. This could be the treats you use most often, a vegetable or fruit (such as carrots or blueberries), cooked or raw meat, dry or wet food. Place the plates on the ground in a line next to each other and then let your dog eat whatever is on them. Observe what he ate first, did he let something go and come back to it? Or did he go one at a time and ingest everything? If this happens – most likely your dog just likes everything and has no apparent preference. If he let something go and came back to it later, it means he didn’t like it as much as other things. A taste test like this will help you determine what your pet likes best and what he likes least.
Play
Many dogs love to play with their human, but sometimes the guardian does not know what such play should look like. This is where we can get the most help by going to a dog trainer, who will give us suggestions on how to play. A great deal depends on what kind of dog we have; terriers, for example, will often derive a lot of fun from tugging on a toy. Retrievers, on the other hand, like to catch something in their mouth and carry the object. The type of dog we have, i.e. whether it is a hunting dog, a herding dog or a companion dog, will tell us what form of play it might enjoy the most. Sometimes pets just like to have a toy, while others enjoy it when the guardian competes with them, for example by pulling with a tug. To ensure your pet enjoys playing with you, remember to let them win. Giving your dog the toy back while tugging will make him successful and eager to continue playing.
Social and environment
So-called ‘social’ is a social reward and will be, for example, our joy that the pet has done a task well. Most often we talk about praise, but many dogs really like to jump up with their front paws on their human and lean against him. This behaviour will also act as a reward. Stroking the head may not appeal to dogs, and this is often a human reflex when we want to reward a pet. Pay attention to whether, when you reach out to your dog, he backs away slightly – if so, it is possible that he does not like the touch at all. Dogs, on the other hand, like to be stroked under the chin, under the ears, on the nape of the neck, on the sides of the body. An environmental reward, for example, would be to let the dog off the lead to jump into the lake. Remember to make it a familiar and safe place. This is allowing the dog to use the environment as he wishes and here again breed can make a difference. Retriers won’t refuse to take a dip in even the smallest puddle, and a Great Dane at the sight of tall grass will want to check for pheasants.
What is the greatest reward for a dog is not necessarily what we think it is. Try giving your dog a treat in a different way than usual during his next training session using food. For example, you could throw it on the grass or hide it in your closed hand, give it to your pet to sniff, then make a few hand movements away from your dog as if that hand were to run away from it, only to throw the treat on the ground a moment later.
