useful

by Brenda Nelson

Created on: August 02, 2010

A spoiled dog is a dog that is allowed to rule the house, one that must be carried because it has not learned how to walk on a leash, or one that the human owners must cater to at every moment. A dog who has been trained using treats as a reward is not a spoiled dog.

-Treats do not spoil a dog, bad owners spoil dogs-

Treats when used as training aids, either as bait or reward, is not in any way creating a spoiled dog. If the treats were given repeatedly for the wrong reason, such as when a dog is begging, then the owner has created a spoiled dog, but in this case the treats were not used as a correct training aid, rather as a way to appease the dog. In fact here the dog has trained the owner to give it treats on demand.

-Correct Use of Treats-

Treats should be used for training. Ideally soft treats work best as the dogs get an instant reward and don't spend time looking on the ground for crumbs. If kept tiny they will not make a dog fat. The treats can be used to “bait” a dog into the correct position, such as by holding the treat to the ground the dog is encouraged into the “down” position. The treat can then be given to the dog to reward it, thus teaching it that if it does what is asked, it gets a reward.

-Spoiled Dogs-

A spoiled dog does not know it is a dog. It may be one that is carried around because the owners gave up teaching it how to walk on a leash. Ironically this is easy to do using treats as a bribe and reward. A spoiled dog is one that drags its owner and rules the walk, it is never trained to realize that it is not the boss. A spoiled dog gets away with things and the owner may even come to overlook the problems in the dog because they think they are being excellent owners by letting the dog do what ever it wants.

-Spoiled Kids-

A spoiled child is not the one that has oodles of toys, it is the child that is in control of the parents. The one that gets the toys because the parents do not want the temper tantrum when they say “No”. The spoiled child is the one that rules their parents by pouting when they don't want to do something or putting on a show they they do want to do something. Try thinking of dogs the same way.

The spoiled dog is the dog that gets the treats because they have demanded them, not because they have earned them.  When used correctly treats are an excellent training aid and I am sure most dog owners will agree that a well trained dog is a better dog.

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