Rewarding is an important part of each exercise. Plan it well before you start practicing with your dog.
In order to teach new things to your dog, you will need to reward him when he does something that you want him to do. The dogs live in the moment: they will need to be rewarded at the exact time they are doing something that you'd like them to do again. If you want to teach your dog to sit, for example, you will need to reward and praise your dog when he is actually sitting. If you feed treats to your dog when he stands up after sitting, you end up having taught him that standing up is a great idea. To be able to reward your dog for correct behavior, it is important to always plan the rewarding before training.
Before starting an exercise, plan and decide:
- what is the behavior you want to reinforce by rewarding
- what kind of reward you will use: will it be a toy, or a bowl with food in it, for example
- how will you reward: will you preplace the reward, throw it, or are you going to have an assistant who will throw a toy or put the food bowl on the ground
- where will you reward: behind an obstacle, on the dog's intended line after an obstacle, or will you give the reward to your dog from your hand
Have fun practicing - enjoy every moment with your best friend!
