5-10 Treats at a Time
Working with Bailey on “chin” - I ask her to place her chin on the stool covered by a towel 5 times. During the training session, I give her a total of 10 treats, staying within my 5-10 treat rule of thumb. Keeping our training short and sweet was critical for Bailey, who would often literally “sit out” practice when she was not into it. 5-10 treats at a time kept it fun and easy.
In one of my first blog posts almost 2 years ago, 5 Tips for Making Training Your Pup Simple & Fun, I shared these 5 tips:
Make it Pawsitive!
Keep Training Sessions Short & Sweet
Be Consistent
Include Training in Daily Activities
Start Small
As I’ve worked with more clients since then, I’ve made adjustments to how I coach my clients to be more successful. Specifically for Tip #2, instead of a time limit or goal for training duration, nowadays, I typically tell my clients to count out 5-10 treats and use that to measure their training session.
5-10 minutes can feel like a long time for a dog, depending on what my client is working on with their pup and their pooch’s age, physical health, arousal level, environment, etc., in that moment. Additionally, unless my client remembers to take note of the time or start a timer — I know that I often don’t!— tracking the time can be annoying or a bit fuzzy. For many of my time-crunched clients, 5-10 minutes can also feel like a commitment that is hard to make and fit into their busy lives.
5-10 treats, on the other hand, tends to feel more accessible and spontaneous (beyond counting out the treats themselves). My clients often give me a look of surprise when I tell them their “homework” is to train with 5-10 treats at a time for any skill. They may also remark on how little training that is. A handful of treats feels like no time at all vs tracking 5-10 minutes, especially for food motivated doggos!
Therein lies the beauty of reframing how long we “need” to train our pups. Grabbing a few treats here and there throughout the day feels more fun and spur of the moment. And less about squeezing yet another task into a full schedule of work, errands, house chores, appointments, etc. The more frictionless I can make “training,” the more it becomes about my clients enjoying interacting with their pooches in a productive way. Keeping training to 5-10 treats (reinforcements or repetitions) at a time also prevents the sessions from going too long and the potential for boredom or frustration on either my client’s or their dog’s part. It actually maintains the training time as something to look forward to—that’s right—Making it Pawsitive (Tip #1)!—and hopefully thereby increasing frequency of training (Ah ha! It’s a Jedi mind trick!) Another bonus of keeping training to 5-10 rewards is managing calorie intake for our pups.
Of course, there are some behaviors that require more than “5-10 treat” intervals of training. It’s not a hard and fast rule but it is a good rule of thumb. But what’s most important for me is helping clients build in the habit of practicing new skills and behaviors with their doggos on a regular basis. This naturally strengthens consistency of training (Tip #3) and becomes part of their daily activities and routine (Tip #4). By Starting Small (Tip #5) we then have a stronger foundation for longer duration training sessions, more complicated skills, and steady progress towards our goals.
So remember, 5-10 treats is the new “short and sweet,” and naturally incorporates the other 4 tips!
