What Kind of Rewards Can I Use for an Akita/Shepherd Mix?

Posted on June 2, 2010 by jane

I have a 4 month old Akita/Shepherd puppy. She’s already very independent and very smart. However, she’s not all that interested in food, which is making it difficult to reward her during training. Are there any treats that are irresistible to dog? Any other ideas for rewards?

Not all dogs work for food. To some dogs, a favorite toy would be more important. Or a lot of praise from you, and a bit of play time. I’ve had a few dogs who don’t care much about food but will do anything for praise, or maybe a quick game with their ball. But if you’re doing training that you really want to use treats for, the one thing my dogs can’t resist is chicken or rabbit jerky – the meat is the only ingredient, so it’s also healthy!

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  • galloping . greys

    I suggest Innova Evo treats. They are very healthy, because unlike other treats, they don’t have empty calories, or fillers like grain.

    You can also try bits of raw meat.
    References :

  • hellosunshine_hb

    Nutro makes these natural blueberry treats that have a very strong scent. My trainer uses them in his obedience class and EVERY dog goes nuts for them! They come in a blue bag.
    References :

  • Killer Blondie

    Turkey, love, more play time, kong.
    References :

  • walking lady

    Not all dogs work for food. To some dogs, a favorite toy would be more important. Or a lot of praise from you, and a bit of play time. I’ve had a few dogs who don’t care much about food but will do anything for praise, or maybe a quick game with their ball. But if you’re doing training that you really want to use treats for, the one thing my dogs can’t resist is chicken or rabbit jerky – the meat is the only ingredient, so it’s also healthy!
    References :

  • Cindy F

    Training a dog that isn’t food movitated can be much harder than one that is. However I would suggest that rather than just giving her her food and then offering her a treat during training that you switch over to a method that is called "nothing in life is free". Basically with this method you don’t just give her a bowl of food for doing nothing, you use the food as the "treat" during training. Now I’m not saying that you strave her just that but once she realizes that food isn’t there when ever she wants for doing nothing she will be much more willing to pay attention to training.
    References :
    30+ yrs experience as breeder/trainer/exhibitor

  • Frootbat31

    The Akita breed gets very attached to their owners. Use praise and pets for reward. Also bear in mind that naturally puppies do not get rewards for good behavior from their mothers. They are expected to follow pack rules.
    Play, toys, and affection might be more worthwhile for your dog than treats.
    References :
    http://www.frootbat31.netfirms.com/

  • Frankie

    Your dog dosn’t have much of a food drive so training her with food won’t get the best results. Some dogs just don’t have a strong food drive so they are either given toy rewards, or given a smaller meal or have a meal withheld. That hunger is then used as motivation to work, and they rewarded with the rest of the meal in small treats (eg. kibble by kibble).
    Some people call this a ‘Nothing in life is free’ method.
    Some dogs only require a stroke on the head and kind words as a reward, but they are few.

    If you train her with food rewards, find out what her favourite food is. Try pieces of ham, hotdog, cheese, carrot, etc. You don’t have to spend money on expensive dog treats. (Here they are expensive anyway!)

    Try treating her with toys if she is interested in them. For example, you do the sit command, she sits, you throw her a tennis ball to chew on for a second, then do the next command. Just replace food rewards with toy rewards.
    Try it with tug toys. See what she loves and use that as a reward.

    If she’s not interested in toys, try just a ‘good dog’ and a pet on the head. I’ve only ever known this to work with some collies though.

    You need to find her drive and get her motivated.

    Good luck!!
    References :
    Dog trainer

  • Herding Dogs Rule!

    Not all dogs are treat/food motivated. Some dogs are more interested in praise from you, a favorite toy, or a quick bit of play time. For yummy treats, I use Bil-Jac Liver treats, sliced up hot dogs, bits of turkey or chicken, or even cheese. When you are training with treats, make sure to watch their food intake so that they do not start to gain weight. Some dogs really like carrots, so that may be an option also. Whenever I am doing intensive training, I cut back on their food just a little bit to make sure they don’t gain weight. The key is to find out what makes your dog excited & happy and use that as a reward. Congrats on the puppy and cudos for training!!
    References :
    Dog Trainer

  • King Les The Lofty

    The breed makes no difference except for the size of what can be swallowed.
    # 1: PRAISE is to ALWAYS be part of the reward.
    Other possibilities (and you should vary them so that she doesn’t get sated by any one type of reward – especially the tidbits) are:
    #2: Ear massage.
    #3: Chest massage.
    #4: Croup massage.
    #5: Tiny sliver of cheese.
    #6: Tiny sliver of hard-baked liver.
    #7: Tiny square of crisped bacon.
    #8: A peanut – especially a salted one*
    #9: Tug-o-war using a knotted towel.
    #10: Chasing a ball that you foot-tapped or bounced along the ground.

    (* Dogs are sensitive to salt, but the small amount attached to a dozen peanuts isn’t going to be a problem, so take advantage of the pooch’s craving for it)

    All of those tidbits are suitable because they are dry, easy to make small clean to handle. In the early stages, find out what her order of preference is from the whole range of rewards – then the idea is that during the early stages of learning a new activity you use one of the 3 highest-value-to-her rewards, but for revision lessons you use ANY of the others except those she is totally not interested in (because if she’s totally not interested then SHE doesn’t regard it as a reward, just as many girls would regard a new lipstick as a reward but you won’t find many boys who do!)

    The only dogs not interested in food are the ones that are being overfed or are sick or are being give muck that THEY don’t regard as fit for canine consumption. Which is how I regard the kibbles, especially the extruded kibbles, especially especially the kibbles with a high grain content.

    You will probably find that bits of anchovy or sardine or hard-boiled egg interest her, but they are not easy to get dry enough for putting into your pocket, so will need you to have some small plastic zip-locks. They are also messy to convert to small enough chunks that she gets few calories, just the smell & taste.
    Dogs – well, GSDs anyway – don’t need a huge amount as a reward, they just need to have their effort acknowledged by the alpha.
    Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
    "In GSDs" as of 1967
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