Puppy owners and animal trainers prefer positive reinforcement methods to instill good behavior in dogs. Believe it or not, all it might take is a few repetitions for your little pupper to connect the desired behavior to the reward. After which, your doggo will be eager to repeat the good acts with the hope of receiving attractive prizes.

Gradually, your doggo will learn the behaviors and exhibit them even if you or other household members don’t explicitly instruct it to do something. Use this technique to condition your canine furry pet to pick up desirable behaviors with little trouble. Positive reinforcement can set you both up for a win-win situation at home, in a social setting, and in other places.

Focus on behavioral training of your doggo, but it is equally important to pay attention to its physical health. Pet insurance for dogs helps get timely medical help during distressing dog health scenarios, sickness, and emergencies, which is why you must consider buying a policy. Search popular pet policies online, check pet insurance cost, then request and compare quotes offered by various insurers before signing up for a policy.

Meanwhile, read this article to learn how to use treats for positive reinforcement puppy training.

How to use treats effectively?

While the whole method sounds too easy to implement, it still requires much care and effort to accomplish behavioral goals. You must know that there are right and wrong ways to dispose of food rewards such as treats. Offering these precious edible trophies may seem simple from the outside, but it can get tricky sometimes.

Follow the below mentioned steps, so a puppy training session relying on this technique goes as smoothly as possible.

#1 Choose tiny treats or food bits, so they don’t significantly add to your pupper’s daily food intake and, consequently, calories. Now, you don’t want your furry baby to put on weight because training sessions include tasty treats, do you? Carefully read the nutritional information on the pack before committing to it throughout a session or training sessions during the upcoming days.

#2 Tell yourself to reward your pup only when it complies with the desired behaviors. Reward your canine pal every time it responds correctly for the first few times, typically six to eight times. Your fur baby should have associated a specific behavior with the food reward by this time.

#3 You should phase out the food rewards after this stage. Rewarding your puppy each time it follows a particular command or displays good behavior will only make it depend on the reward in order to show desirable behaviors, which can be considered unhealthy. So, the solution to this problem lies in phasing out food rewards over time.

#4 Once your puppy gets the hang of this, it is time to reward it only every other time. After this, you can move on to offering it toys, showering it with verbal praises, and engaging it for a few seconds with head or belly rubs instead of treats.

#5 Slowly and steadily shift the focus away from rewards until your pet pup reaches a point where it can display good habits without any motivators.

The positive reinforcement training method is easy, effective, and reliable. Also, every dog is unique and may respond well to particular treats or a range of treats; figure out your dog’s preferences to strategically employ treats for puppy training.

It is essential to keep a check on your pupper’s physical health time and again to avoid potential behavioral issues. Pet insurance for dogs helps support your canine with quality health care at affordable costs during unplanned vet visits. Pet insurance cost can be much lower than the fat vet bills you may have to pay on an untimely vet visit, so consider buying a policy.