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When to Stop Using Food Rewards in Dog Training

By Ed Frawley

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The answer to this question is NEVER.

Really good trainers will never stop using food rewards. What they do is manage how often they use food in their training.

When people train with food rewards, they will always meet people who say how foolish they are for training with FOOD TREATS.

They say it’s only a matter of time before we ask our dog to do something and we don't have food with us, then what will you do?

This is the reason why it is so important to understand exactly how we reduce the use of food rewards in our training program.

When we start reward-based training, our dogs are put on a continuous reward program. The dog is rewarded every time it performs a behavior correctly.

In fact, we often jackpot rewards by giving the dog several food rewards in a row. Jackpotting helps maintain engagement after the behavior.

When we start teaching a new behavior, we often reward the dog for just TRYING to perform the behavior. That’s called successive approximation.

Successive approximation during the learning phase builds the dog's drive to figure out what we want. As it gains accuracy, we gradually wean the off successive approximation and back to rewarding when the dog performs correctly.

There is a fine line between using continuous rewards and weaning the dog off the reward.

Continuous rewards during the learning phase builds engagement and the drive to learn.

Staying on continuous rewards too long, after the dog has learned the behavior, will always create problems.

The dog has learned to expect a reward and when the trainer starts to wean the rewards, the dog will stop offering the behavior.

The solution is for trainers to move to VARIABLE and RANDOM rewards as soon as possible.

An example of a VARIABLE reward system occurs when the dog is rewarded for the 3rd, 5th, 4th, and 7th time it performs a behavior.

Some call a RANDOM reward system rewarding on less of a schedule than in a variable system. That means the rewards are really stretched out. That schedule will of course change depending on the training results.

The long-term goal is to create a situation where there is an expectation of a reward and when that doesn’t happen, the dog goes UP IN DRIVE (not down in drive) and it tries harder the next time it's asked.

We compare this to people who play slot machines. They know they won't win every time, but they hope the next time they pull that handle, it will be their lucky day.

The question new trainers ask is, WHEN DO I MOVE OFF OF A CONTINUOUS REWARD.

When we feel the dog has reached fluency, we will test the dog. We will watch the dog's behavior by not rewarding 3 successful attempts. If we are happy with what we see, we move the dog back into a variable reward and then back into extending the random rewards.

With this said, it is vitally important to understand that there is no reason to ever completely STOP using food in our training – not ever! We use food rewards on a random basis for the life of our dogs. Food rewards are a part of maintaining and building our relationship with our dogs.

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About Author

Ed Frawley

Ed Frawley is the founder of Leerburg. He has been training dogs since the 1950s. For 30 years, Ed bred working bloodline German Shepherds and has produced over 350 litters. During this time, Ed began recording dog training videos and soon grew an interest in police service dogs. His narcotic dogs have been involved in over 1,000 narcotics searches resulting in hundreds of arrests in the state of Wisconsin. Ed now solely focuses on producing dog training courses with renowned dog trainers nationwide. If you want to learn more about Ed, read about his history here.