What do you mean, 'high value' treat?

I had a question recently about what exactly we mean by high value treats. The person who asked had seen this term and gone out and bought the most expensive dog treats they could find and still their dog wasn’t particularly interested. Many people will tell me their dogs aren’t really interested in treats and often I find it’s because the treats aren’t valuable enough. But what does that mean?   

When we talk about value, we humans think of money hence buying more and more expensive treats, but in this instance we mean value from your dog’s point of view, not yours. So if your dog ignores every offering of dog treats that you buy but sits and watches you when you eat cheese or make your lunchtime sandwich then that is more likely to be the food/treats that he perceives as valuable.  

Just thinking about it logically, we use food rewards to increase focus on us and get our dogs to engage with training. When we eat some foods, our dog often exhibits the kind of focus that we are looking for in our training. So cutting up very small (whatever you’ve done, cut it in half again at least!) pieces of food as treats might be more likely to give you the kind of attention from your dog that you have been seeking. 

It’s worth experimenting with different foods and seeing what works best for your dog. Many Labradors will work perfectly well for their own kibble or just basic dog treats, whereas other breeds, such as a dachshund, is more likely to be fussy and will need something more special that he doesn’t get normally, such as ham or chicken. If a dog gets something daily for no effort on his part then he is unlikely to put any effort in if you use this for training. This means if you routinely add chicken to your dogs food to encourage him to eat, he may not be as enthusiastic with this as a training treat. I think the most important thing to remember when it comes to treat value is that the final decision rests with your dog, not you. And in my experience when it comes to treats there aren’t many dogs who can resist a fridge raider!

For some dogs, the best reward isn't food at all, but a toy or game. I will talk more about that next time.