Why Use Treats During Beagle Training

Though beagles are intelligent dogs, beagle training can be hard due to their single-mindedness and dedication. These excellent scent hounds are quickly distracted by smells thus you might find it hard to recall them if they have picked up a scent. But despite that, successful training can be made possible with proper training approach.

One approach that can be used is treat training. With sense of smell as good as theirs, having them obey your commands wouldn’t be an issue. Who can resist that yummy-smelling bits of cheese or hotdog, anyway?

Although some believe that treat training is a form of bribery, a lot more believe that it’s one way to motivate a dog to display the behavior he was rewarded for. For instance if you reward your beagle with a treat for responding to your come command, it’ll make him figure out that he gets something good for doing that certain thing thereby motivates him to do it once more the next time you ask him to do so. With rewards, you are offering the treat after the deed has been accomplished while with bribery, you are showing the treat to your dog prior to the execution of the command. While bribery in dog terms isn’t that great of a problem, doing so can help him develop the habit of obeying only when there’s food or treat found. To avoid bribery during dog training, the most effective thing that you can do is to hide the treats prior to giving the command and give it to him only after successful performance. For example if you are training the sit or down command, it’s going to help if you hold the treat in your fist so that he can only smell it but not see it.

When looking for treats, make sure that it’s something your furry friend will find truly rewarding. But make sure not to use foods like chocolate, ice cream, chips along with other table scraps for they may lead to health problems. Moreover, treats are not staple foods. You still need to continue providing premium dog foods every mealtime.