A well balance diet is important for the growth of your dog - a proper diet produces strong bones, healthy muscles and a beautiful coat. Dogs love their food just like their human family, but unlike humans they’ll eat almost anything.

A dog’s food requirement changes as he grows, and each dog has individual nutritional needs. When in training, a dog needs to have the usual healthy and well balanced diet and it is important to use the appropriate treats as a training aid.

When training your dog using a food treat, reinforce the training with words, using verbal praise at the same time, this teaches the dog to respond to the words as well as the treat. Don’t give the dog a food treat every time, and don’t be consistent when giving a food treat. Dogs are very smart and will learn your pattern if you use one. This can make training difficult.

Varying the reward is the best way to prevent having a dog that only behaves when he gets food, and also avoids the problem of obesity in dogs. Use dog training treats that are healthy for your dog, and never use human food as a treat or reward. It can teach your dog a habit you won’t want to deal with later.

A dog that gets human food as a reward may end up digging in the garbage. After all, he gets this food as a reward, so digging in the trash may become a reward to him. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense to us, but to a dog it makes perfect sense. It is the same principle as giving a dog an old sock or shoe as a toy - they don’t know the difference between the one they can have and the one they can’t have.

Training your dog is one of the biggest responsibilities you will have; it is important that you take the time to train him well.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Dog Training, Dog Training Tips, Dog Treats, Dogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.