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I wonder if you could advise on possible treat/rewards for Daisy-Mae (8wk old mongrel). She has a slightly upset tummy at the moment and we have not introduced anything new to her diet yet.
In planning to train her we feel we need a physical reward (as well as priase) when she conquers sit, stay etc. I was curious as to what would be ok to give?
This is one area you DO let a dog dictate to you... give it a whirl for now with a few options...
tiny tiny little bits of cheddar
tiny little cut up bits of hot dog sausage
tiny bits of ham
Theres loads of options the trick is keep them extremely smelly and tasty, but very very small.
I know of very few dogs who will work for praise alone, and those are pretty much all border collies, lol.
Instead, you have to use treats but..... along the line what you do is ask for one trick.... two tricks....... etc etc until she will do 5 minutes worth of tricks for just the one treat.
At 8 weeks she should be capable of doing sit, down, stay (short distance), recall ......
YOu can work also on 'leave' and fetch....
Make it really fun and short sessions, dont push her about with your hands, make her think shes controlling you at first (ooh if i sit i get a treat LOOK MUM IM SITTING TREAAAAAAAAAT!!!),
To get a sit, the old way was to put your hand on the dogs bum and push it down - often the pup wants to know why your hand is there, sniff the hand, bitey the hand, push back up against the hand. If the pup does sit, nine time sout f ten he doesnt link that with getting the treat.
Instead take a treat, let her see it, hold it above her nose and then move it slowly back until she has to sit, to still see and sniff it..... soon as bum touches ground, give treat.
Do this a few times without saying anything (vocal stuff will confuse the issue for now).... when she gets the idea that it is bottom on ground that earns the treat and nothing else, introduce the word sit as the bottom touches the ground, then release the treat.
When you have a great sit on command, you then stop luring with the hand so much (keep a hand command in there though dogs work way better off body language than voice), then to get the sit for longer, you hang on to the treat a little longer sometimes so she doesnt think sit means 'bum on floor for one second'.....
Going back to your original question, so long as she likes the treats and they are small and tasty and not something dogs should never have, ie human chocolate, then whatever she likes best!
