Stopping reward treats, keeping the behaviour

Meemars

This seems like such a silly thing, but I’m looking for a little training advice for my 8yr old Lab/collie.
We only got her 7 months ago from a rescue and everything is going lovely. She's come to us fairly well trained, so I'm a bit new to this.

She’s really well behaved, but I was a little worried that she never, ever seemed interested in drinking water. She would leave a full bowl of water there all day, and never touch it, but would drink very occasionally from the birdbath outside. So recently I introduced a routine of drinking water after our walks/swims. We head straight out the back when we get home and she will now drink on command from the rainwater bucket (she wasn't keen on drinking indoors for some reason). She gets a treat each time she drinks.

This is where the new issue has arisen. My clever pooch now realises that drinking water = treat, so every time she feels like a Little Something, she’ll now wander up to her bowl with a twinkle in her eye, (indoors is fine now, of course!) and slurp away, then look to me for a treat, which I give. I was delighted with this behaviour at first; she’s actively drinking without being prompted. But I can tell by the glint in her eye that she’s not drinking for health benefits, but for treats! :rolleyes: I’m proud of my devious girl and her clever ways, but she’s getting spoiled now. I have to call her away when I see her heading for the water bowl for the umpteenth time, and she’s eyeing up puddles on the street with the same enthusiasm. I fear I’ve created a monster! :pac:

I wonder how I can pull back on rewarding her for drinking now, without confusing her. I would like to keep the “drink from bucket after walk” routine, and to keep her drinking when she wants to, but I want to curtail the “I-want-a-treat: lap lap lap” behaviour. I will keep this up until I know how best to deal with it, but I don’t want her to get fat because she’s drinking water!!

Any advice?

Vince32

Could be fairly simple to solve, substitute her treat for water for a piece of kibble or two, every 2nd -3rd time, and give more kibble than treats over a week or 2 week period, and only give the high value treats for training purposes. She probably won't even notice the change if its gradual enough. Then stop giving the kibble every 2nd or 3rd time, and just say good girl and give some love and praise instead of food.

Gophur

A treat need not be a piece of food. A "well-done" ,or a toy would suffice.