Sorry I missed this last night, you are rewarding your dogs for coming back to you but not with treats, I also mix the rewards with my dogs and have found if you use the same reward all the time it eventually stops being a high reward and drops to a lower one so I mix them. Treats are just a part of rewarding.

There isn't a decent reward based trainer near me, many say they are reward based because they use treats but when I went to see them they were still old school. Maybe a thread in Training and Behaviour would be better for this so we can all discuss and learn from each other.


One of the thinks I love about reward based training, as long as it doesn't hurt the dog and the dog thinks it is getting a reward, it doesn't matter what the reward is. Us humans, I also mean me, think we know what a reward is to a dog but we don't have a clue at times.

I know someone who discovered accidentally what one of her dogs thought of as a reward. This lady is a very good trainer/behaviourist but she couldn't get her dog to work for her not matter what she used. One day she had another go at clicker training with him, he didn't want to know so she walked out of the room. She then remembered that she had left her coat on the back of a chair and it had treats in the pocket, she went back and her dog was tucking into the treats. Then it clicked, taking the treats out of her pocket was this dog's reward after a training session. Now this dog can't do enough training

Yep, a well done or quick pat on the head is enough for mine. Having said that I don't ask for a lot from them, just to come back when called, wait when asked and leave when told, apart from that they have free rein

It's gone a bit off topic really so probably would be better elsewhere.


One of mine is not treat, toy or anything else orientated. In 8 years I have not found anything that can switch her on to training so I don't do any official training with her. As long as she responds to heel, wait and leave then when asked then the rest is not needed

In regards to some of the raw feeders. Free feeding raw food is impossible!! The food spoils quickly and it actually does attract a lot more pests etc. than kibble.

That goes without saying. My last dog ate canned only food, which is ALSO impossible to free feed. Jade is on a weight loss diet, which includes canned food added to her dried kibble, so she's also not free fed.

ONLY 100% kibble fed dogs can truly be free fed. Also, I usually don't let the bowl get totally empty before I fill it a bit.

Great discussions people!

Free feeding is something we tried years ago, found all the dogs either put weight on or didn't do well at all because they didn't bother to eat.

We realised quite quickly it was just laziness on our part putting down a bowl once a day was easier than planned meals so stopped doing it.

Mine get very excited at meal time only have to whisper supper or breakfast or dinner and they are jumping around with excitement.

Breakfast dry food with eggs, dinner dry with vegetables and supper a pouch with a crunchy raw carrot. They look forward to all three meals and like them at the same times each day, mind I walk them same times daily too they are very much creatures of habit they enjoy the routines I believe.