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How to stop treats as a reward
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10-03-2019 5:32pm#1
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1st bold She's not going to ask to go outside if she knows she's allowed to do it inside. As far as she's concerned, it's perfectly acceptable to pee on the pad so it wouldn't enter her head to ask to go outside.Thanks for your reply. I presume we will always need the pad because we live in an apartment. She is walked 3-4 times a day and pees/poos outside with no problem. I had thought at this stage she would be asking to go out but she doesn’t. She doesn’t pee overnight but does the minute she wakes up so she can hold it. Think I will start bringing her out as soon as she starts sniffing at the pad, that might get her to start asking to go out. Will try stopping the treats so there is no incentive there for her to pee inside.
2nd bold I don't think that will help and will just confuse her, just like she got confused when she didn't get a treat for peeing. If you want her to only pee outside, then you'd be better off getting rid of the pads altogether. Think of it in human terms. It would be like providing smokers with a smoking room but still expecting them to go outside to smoke.
One thing I learned early on with mine is that treat rewards aren't the best solution (maybe it works for others but definitely not for me). I was trying to teach them the basic "sit" command and when they'd sit, I'd give them a treat. They learned to sit very quickly but the first time I got them to sit and didn't give them a treat they looked at me like "are you kidding me?" and walked off in disgust. It took ages to retrain them to sit without expecting a treat in return. On the plus side they are very good now when it comes to food and don't beg. If they want something I'm eating they automatically sit and wait until I give it to them
Habits are hard to change. I'd suggest contacting a trainer to get some tips. If your dog is being walked 4 times a day there shouldn't be an issue, unless you have to leave the dog alone during the day for work and the pad is a necessity. Dogs are all or nothing. Either she can pee on the pad or she can't. That's about as much thought as she will put into it. She won't start to ask to go outside unless she knows that's her only option.0 -
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1st bold
One thing I learned early on with mine is that treat rewards aren't the best solution (maybe it works for others but definitely not for me). I was trying to teach them the basic "sit" command and when they'd sit, I'd give them a treat. They learned to sit very quickly but the first time I got them to sit and didn't give them a treat they looked at me like "are you kidding me?" and walked off in disgust. It took ages to retrain them to sit without expecting a treat in return. On the plus side they are very good now when it comes to food and don't beg. If they want something I'm eating they automatically sit and wait until I give it to them
This is why you use a variable reward rate
- so you stagger when you give them the reward or you might praise this time and reward the next etc etc I had somebody scoffing at me one time that using treats was stupid (I know you're not saying that btw!) when I had called one of the dogs to me and treated them - 'but then they'll expect a treat every time they come back' - eh thats the whole point so when there's an emergency and I need them back asap they'll come back!
I think in the OPs case the problem is that they've trained the dog to wee indoors so it's the pad that needs to go IMO and not the treats. I know plenty of people who have dogs in apartments and the dog is taken out as needed. The same with my two - they generally poo on their walks and rarely in the garden because they have a routine. I'd assume it'a small dog too or they place would be flooded lol and the pads would have been gone long ago0 -
I know what you are sayingI had somebody scoffing at me one time that using treats was stupid (I know you're not saying that btw!) Using treats isn't stupid if it's done the way you did it. I didn't realise that and solely used treats, which is the wrong way to do it as I was teaching my dogs that sitting results in a treat, rather than they should sit on my command.
Pet Mania had a dog day where they had a groomer, trainer etc in store and you could go and ask questions. The trainer did explain to me the treat system you use which I tried on my dogs to teach re-call. It was a disaster as the times I didn't have treats they weren't impressed and wouldn't come back to me after that as they weren't guaranteed a treat. So that was my bad. Now I just use positive reinforcement and luckily that works.0 -
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