Tactical Treat Jars.
So there’s a lot of things I’m trying to do as a dog trainer. When I’m interacting with a client, I’m trying to help them understand the technical aspect of dog training: how do they use their leash and their training collar? How do they use their food and their toys? How should they be moving their body? And when should they be using their voice?
The other side of this is I’m also trying to help people develop a dog training habit to where they’re training their dog and getting their dog to learn some things and then also learn how to apply those things under a wide variety of circumstances.
The third thing that I’m trying to help people do is to be organized, and that’s what today’s dog training tip is going to be about. It’s about being organized in a way that will help you execute your dog training plan. There are several ways to go about this.
If you’ve just gotten a puppy, let me give you one tip before we get into the main chunk of what I want to talk about today. Wear a treat pouch all the time. This isn’t permanent, but If you wear a treat pouch, it makes things a lot easier.
However, not everybody, including myself, always has a treat pouch. So what are some things that you can do to be able to help you? The big one that I want to discuss today is tactical treat jars.
Yeah, that’s kind of funny that it’s tactical, but maybe it’s not, but it is placed with some thought because you need to have your treat jars in places where it’s going to be easy for you to be able to reinforce your dog for behaviors that you want when you’re very unlikely not to be wearing your treat pouch.
Okay, so this is one of the tactical treat jars I use in my house. So this guy right here is near the entrance to my front door. And the reason that I have it there is that I want to make it very easy for me to reinforce my dogs when they’re in heel position.
When I’m meeting somebody, I need a way to reinforce my dogs for being on a platform or in some kind of down-stay. Having a treat jar makes it very easy for me to be able to do that when I’m not wearing a treat pouch. Because really, who has their treat pouch on them when the doorbell rings?
Most people don’t, and you’re going to need an easy way to be able to help your dog understand that, “Hey, what you’re doing right now is precisely what I want you to do.” We’ve got to make our training meaningful.
So, stashing these treat jars in strategic places around your house can be helpful. So I use two right now. I have one in my bedroom, and I have one close to the front door. My home isn’t all that big. So that treat jar is also close to the front door and kind of in the midline between my living room and my kitchen.
So let me give you just one more circumstance where I’ve used this treat jar to help myself. The other day, I was training with Gabby, Alpha, and Jericho. Gabby was on the couch. She was not necessarily training, but I wanted to stay on the couch.
I had Alpha on an elevated bed and Jericho in a crate. As they were all there staying and being attentive, I would go to the treat jar, and then I would go and reward each dog. Then I’d walk away and go to the front door.
I would return to the treat jar, and then I would reward them again for being nice and calm and staying where I asked them to. So that’s just one way you could use a tactical treat jar to make it easier for you.
Now, please be careful about overusing your treat jar because you don’t want to make your dog fat by just handing them endless treats. You want to use this to supplement what you’re already doing by maybe hand-feeding your dog.
All right, guys. Well, that’s it for today’s tip. I hope this one was beneficial. If it was helpful for you, why don’t you give this video a thumbs up? It helps the channel, and it’s greatly appreciated. And if you’d like to get more content like this, please be sure to subscribe and then click that notification Bell. Well, hey, thanks so much for watching. Have a great day and happy training.
