Set up to train: treats, equipment, sessions and the household

Treats are calories, sessions are short, and everyone in the house uses the same words. This chapter sets up the food, gear, schedule and rules you use every day after.

1. What a reward is, and how big Understand

How dogs learn defined reinforcement: a consequence that makes the behavior before it more likely to happen again. A reward in this manual means whatever the dog will work to get at that moment. The dog decides what counts, not the person holding the bag. A treat the dog spits out is not a reward, however expensive it was. A sniff of a lamppost can be one, and so can a thrown ball, a game of tug, a door opening, or the chance to greet a friend.

VCA's training pages, written by veterinary behaviorists, describe food as the most practical reward for teaching a new behavior because it is fast to deliver and easy to repeat many times in a short session (VCA, Using Reinforcement and Rewards). The same page says the reward must follow the behavior immediately, or it risks rewarding whatever the dog did next. That timing point from How dogs learn drives every equipment and setup choice in this chapter: the food has to be in reach, small and quick to eat.

Size: small enough to eat in a second

VCA's puppy training page gives a size: about the size of a pencil eraser (VCA, Training Basics). Convention The reason is arithmetic and attention. A piece that takes ten seconds to chew stops the session for ten seconds. A piece that takes one second lets you reward again three seconds later. Small pieces also stretch the day's calorie allowance across more repetitions, which section 2 turns into numbers. For a small dog, eraser size may still be too big; cut it smaller. For a large dog, a single piece of kibble is usually close to the right size already.

Value: a ladder, not a single treat

Dogs rank foods. A value tier is the place a food holds in the dog's own ranking at a given moment. Many dogs rank their everyday kibble lowest, dry commercial treats in the middle, and soft, strong-smelling food (small pieces of cooked chicken, a soft commercial training treat) highest. Karen Pryor Clicker Training, a practitioner school, suggests keeping four or five kinds of treat on hand and rotating them (KPCT, When Good Training Goes Badly). Preference

Value changes with the setting. Kibble that works in the kitchen after a meal may be ignored on a sidewalk with a squirrel in view. The usual pattern is to use the lowest value that still works in the place you are training, and to save the top tier for hard places and new behaviors. Proof it and keep going returns to this when it fades the food.

The table is a starting guess. Test it The two-treat test in Start here settles it for your dog: offer each in turn and watch which one the dog leaves its sniffing for. Write the result in the reward column of the sessions sheet.

Rewards that are not food

Some dogs work harder for a toy than for any treat, and some will not eat in exciting places, a sign of stress that Read your dog asks you to note. A toy reward costs time: a five-second tug game is five seconds not training. It earns that time back for behaviors that build excitement anyway, such as a recall. Access is a reward the dog already wants many times a day: going through the door, being unclipped at the park, sniffing a hedge. Proof it and keep going calls these life rewards and uses them to replace most of the food.

2. Treats are calories: the allowance

Every piece of food in a session is food the dog eats that day. A training plan that adds calories on top of full meals adds weight. The calculator on the treat budget page turns a dog's weight into a daily treat allowance in calories, in treat pieces and in spoonfuls of the dog's own food. This section explains each number so you can check it and know what it does not settle.

The ten-percent line

The 2021 AAHA Nutrition and Weight Management Guidelines, a peer-reviewed guideline from the American Animal Hospital Association, put the main diet at 90 percent or more of a dog's intake and treats and other extras at 10 percent or less of daily calories (AAHA 2021 guidelines). Convention The World Small Animal Veterinary Association's treat guide states the same line two ways on one page: "less than 10%" in one place and "no more than 10%" in another (WSAVA, Feeding treats to your dog). VCA's owner page and the ASPCA's general care page give the same ten percent (VCA, Dog Treats). The reason, in AAHA's guideline, is that a large share of food from incomplete sources dilutes the nutrients in the main diet and adds calories.

WSAVA defines a treat as any food given in addition to a complete and balanced diet. That definition matters for training. Kibble taken out of the dog's own bowl and used in a session is not an extra: it is the diet, delivered by hand. VCA's treat page suggests exactly this, using a portion of the regular food as treats, and VCA's rewards page says to subtract treat calories from meals. The Pet Nutrition Alliance's vet-facing calculator does the same subtraction: when treats are switched on, it sets aside ten percent for treats and lowers the suggested meal by ten percent (Pet Nutrition Alliance calculator).

Where the daily calorie figure comes from

Ten percent of what? The best figure is the one your veterinarian gives you, or the feeding figure for the food you use. When you have neither, the calculator estimates one from a published formula in two steps.

Step one is the resting energy requirement (RER): the calories a dog at rest uses in a day to keep its body running. Box 1 of the AAHA guideline gives it as 70 times the body weight in kilograms raised to the power 0.75 (AAHA Box 1, Energy Requirement Calculations). Ohio State's Nutrition Support Service and the Merck Veterinary Manual give the same formula (Ohio State, Basic Calorie Calculator; Merck, Nutritional Requirements of Small Animals). Physical principle

Step two is the maintenance energy requirement (MER): the calories a dog uses in a normal day, estimated as RER times a life-stage factor. Growing puppies get a high factor; a quiet, neutered adult gets a low one. AAHA's Box 1 gives ranges, and the calculator uses the middle of each range and shows the whole range beside it.

The sources agree on the formula and differ at the margins on the factors. Convention AAHA's Box 1 adds that the factors are general guidelines and that sedentary and indoor pets may need fewer calories than they suggest. This manual uses AAHA's ranges because they are the most recent peer-reviewed set and because they show the uncertainty instead of hiding it.

Checking the calculator against AAHA's own example

Box 1 works one example: a 10 lb (4.5 kg) neutered dog. RER is 4.5^0.75 × 70, which AAHA rounds to 216 kcal a day. MER at a factor of 1.4 is 216 × 1.4 = 302 kcal a day.

Enter 4.5 kg and "spayed or neutered adult" in our calculator and it shows RER 216, a range of 303 to 346, and a maintenance estimate of 324. The two differences are both expected. First, the calculator does not round RER before multiplying: 216.28 × 1.4 is 302.8, which rounds to 303, one calorie from AAHA's 302. Second, the calculator's headline figure uses the midpoint factor, 1.5, which gives 324; AAHA's example uses the bottom of the range. The treat allowance is then 32 kcal a day (10 percent of 324). At AAHA's 302 it would be 30. A two-calorie difference is far inside the uncertainty the next paragraph describes.

How rough the estimate is

Ohio State's calculator page says that individual pets' needs can vary by as much as 50 percent from the calculated values, and calls the figures starting points (Ohio State). Convention For a dog whose estimate is 590 kcal, that is a true need anywhere from about 295 to 885. Ten percent of those is 30 to 89 kcal of treats. The estimate is useful because it gives you a size to plan with, not because it is right for your dog.

The way to find your dog's real number is the dog's weight and body condition over weeks, judged by your veterinarian. AAHA's Box 1 says to adjust intake by monitoring body weight and body condition score. Ask the authority

Turning calories into pieces and spoonfuls

Calories are hard to see in a pouch. The calculator converts the allowance two ways.

• Treat pieces a day = allowance ÷ calories per piece, rounded down. AAHA's guideline notes that AAFCO, the body whose model rules most US pet food labels follow, requires calorie content on dog food labels, including snacks and treats, though not on chews, bones or toys. If the label gives calories per treat, use it. If it gives calories per kilogram only, ask the manufacturer, which is WSAVA's advice when the label does not say.
• Training food from the meals is a separate line, not the allowance converted to cups. Food taken out of the bowl for training is part of the day's meals, so it does not use the extras budget; the bowl shrinks by the same amount. The calculator shows what each quarter cup is worth (the bag gives kcal per cup) and the whole day's food in cups at the estimate.

For a 22 lb spayed adult eating a food at 360 kcal a cup, the calculator gives an extras budget of 59 kcal a day, and each quarter cup of that food is 90 kcal. The two numbers answer different questions. The budget caps what you add on top of the meals: treats, chews, a tablespoon of peanut butter. Training food taken from the bowl is not an addition, so it can be as large as your sessions need, as long as the bowl shrinks to match. A new behavior, where you reward often, may use a quarter cup or more of kibble in a day; the practical limit is that the day's meals plus the extras still equal the day's calories.

What one treat costs

WSAVA's treat guide lists calories for foods people often give dogs. Two of them show how fast a single treat uses the allowance.

VCA's treat page gives one more: a single large commercial dog biscuit is about 85 calories. One tablespoon of peanut butter in a food toy is more than a 22 lb dog's whole treat allowance. That does not make peanut butter forbidden; it means it counts against the extras budget, and the meal shrinks to match, or a smaller amount goes in the toy.

3. Foods that are not treats

Some foods people eat are poisonous to dogs, and some are dangerous for other reasons. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center keeps a list (ASPCA, People Foods to Avoid), and WSAVA's treat guide prints a shorter list of toxic ingredients. Between them, these do not belong in a treat pouch:

• Chocolate, coffee and other caffeine (WSAVA includes tea and energy drinks)
• Grapes, raisins, currants and sultanas
• Onions, garlic, chives, leeks and shallots
• Macadamia nuts (the ASPCA also lists other nuts, and coconut and coconut oil, as foods to avoid)
• Alcohol and raw yeast dough
• Xylitol, a sweetener
• Very salty foods; and the ASPCA lists raw or undercooked meat, eggs and bones, avocado, citrus and dairy among foods to avoid or limit

Xylitol needs its own note, because it hides in foods people use as training treats. The FDA says xylitol can drop a dog's blood sugar within 10 to 60 minutes of eating it, and tells owners to check a peanut or nut butter label before giving any, including to hide a pill (FDA, Paws Off Xylitol). The Pet Poison Helpline lists gum, mints, candies, toothpaste, oral rinses and over-the-counter supplements among the products that may contain it. Read the ingredient list of anything spreadable before it goes in a food toy.

WSAVA's guide adds that cooked and raw bones can cause serious damage, that very hard chews such as antlers and hooves are best avoided, and that some raw animal treats carry a risk of infection. A chew is not a training treat in any case: it takes minutes, not a second.

4. Equipment by kind

This manual names equipment by kind, not by brand. Everything below is cheap or already in most homes. What matters is fit, and whether the tool works without causing pain or fear.

Tools this manual does not use, and why

An aversive tool works by causing pain, discomfort, fear or startle so the dog stops a behavior. This manual describes these so you recognize them, not so you use them. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior's 2021 position statement recommends reward-based methods for all dog training and lists tools to avoid, including choke chains, prong collars and shock collars (AVSAB, Humane Dog Training). It states that it found no evidence that aversive methods are more effective in any context.

• Choke chains and prong (pinch) collars. VCA's collar page says these devices can cause damage to the trachea and may raise pressure inside the eye, a danger for dogs prone to glaucoma, and that jerks and tension on them increase fear or anxiety (VCA, Collar and Harness Options). Humane World says neither should be used (Humane World, Dog Collars).
• Shock collars, including bark collars. Humane World says they are often misused and can create fear, anxiety and aggression. VCA's page on behavior products says any device that causes pain should not be used, and that bark collars should not be used until the cause of the barking is known, because on an anxious dog they may increase the anxiety (VCA, Behavior Management Products).
• Retractable leashes on a training walk. A retractable leash keeps light tension on the collar all the time, which rewards pulling, and its length changes without warning. VCA's head-halter page says not to combine a head halter with a retractable leash or a long line. This manual uses a fixed six-foot leash for training walks and a long line in open space. Preference

If a trainer or a store recommends one of these tools, the whom-to-call section of Proof it and keep going gives questions to ask. How dogs learn summarizes the studies behind the position statements and their limits (How dogs learn).

5. Sessions, rate and the household

Short sessions, several times a day

A session is one stretch of training on one or two behaviors, with a start and an end. VCA's puppy training page recommends sessions of a few minutes, a few times a day (VCA, Training Basics). Karen Pryor's fifteen tips for the clicker say that several one-minute sessions do more than one long one (KPCT, Fifteen Tips). Convention Short sessions keep the food small, keep the dog keen, and fit into the edges of a day: before breakfast, during the kettle, at the start of a walk.

End the session before the dog quits. Signs that the dog has had enough include sniffing the floor, looking away, slower responses, yawning and wandering off; Read your dog lists these as stress or appeasement signals, and in a session they often mean the work is too hard or has gone on too long. Stopping on a success, while the dog still wants more, makes the next session start well. Test it Your sessions sheet will show whether two minutes or five suits your dog.

Rate of reinforcement

The rate of reinforcement is the number of rewards a dog earns per minute. Karen Pryor Clicker Training's glossary calls a high rate critical when teaching a new behavior (KPCT glossary). One of its trainers' troubleshooting articles gives roughly 10 to 15 clicks and treats a minute as a rough guideline, and says in the same sentence that it is not a rule (KPCT, When Good Training Goes Badly). Preference The same article describes a session with one treat a minute as a cause of a stuck dog, and suggests breaking the behavior into smaller steps so the dog can earn more often.

The figure is one practitioner's rule of thumb, not a research finding. It is useful as a check: if you count your rewards and get three a minute while teaching something new, the dog is probably failing more often than it is succeeding, and the task needs to be easier. A known behavior in a quiet room needs far fewer rewards.

The rate links back to calories. At ten rewards a minute, a three-minute session uses thirty pieces. That is why pieces are small, why the dog's own kibble does most of the work, and why the session calculator divides the day's pieces across your sessions and tells you when the rate falls below ten.

A weekly plan from your minutes

The setup form asked how many minutes a day you can give. The table shows one way to spend them. It is a starting plan, not a prescription.

Training also happens outside sessions. Every time the dog sits before the door opens, that is a repetition with a life reward. Proof it and keep going builds on this.

The household agreement

A dog learns from everyone it lives with. If one person says "down" for lie down and another says "down" for get off the sofa, the word means nothing reliable. If one person lets the dog on the bed and another scolds it for being there, the dog learns that the bed is sometimes rewarding, which is a strong way to keep a behavior going. The household agreement is the short written list of words and rules that everyone who handles the dog uses the same way. It lives in the household sheet of the training log.

• One word per cue. Pick one word for each behavior, and keep words that sound alike apart ("sit" and "stay" are fine; "down" for two different things is not). Write them down. First behaviors, Loose-leash walking, Come when called and Settle, stay and leave it add cues to this list.
• House rules. Furniture: allowed, not allowed, or only on a blanket. Doors: does the dog wait before going through? Greetings: four paws on the floor before anyone says hello? Feeding: who feeds, where, and does anyone give table scraps? Each rule is fine either way; what matters is that it is the same rule for everyone.
• Who trains and who feeds. Name who runs which sessions and who sets aside the training portion, so the day's food is not counted twice.
• Children. Children can train, with an adult watching. Read your dog sets the supervision rule for children and dogs; write it in the sheet.

Management, defined in How dogs learn, is arranging the home so the unwanted behavior cannot happen while you teach the wanted one: a gate across the kitchen, shoes in a closet, the leash on before the front door opens. Put the management list from How dogs learn in place before the first session. Training changes behavior slowly; management stops the rehearsal of the old behavior today.

6. See it: Moose's treat budget See it

• AAHA Box 1, Energy Requirement Calculations: the one-page source of the formula and the factor table, with AAHA's own worked example and the steps for a phone calculator. Check our numbers against it.
• WSAVA, Feeding treats to your dog: the ten-percent line, unsafe treats and the per-food calorie list used in the "what one treat costs" line.
• VCA, Puppy Behavior and Training: Training Basics: treat size, short sessions and the lure-to-hand sequence First behaviors uses.
• Humane World for Animals, Dog Collars: collar types with the fit test and the welfare organization's position on choke, prong and shock collars.

7. Practice: set up the week Practice

Minimum: one treat test, one treat allowance for the dog's weight, one session length chosen, and the cue words written in the household sheet. Time: about 40 minutes, spread over a day. Materials: the dog's food and one other treat, a bathroom or clinic scale, a measuring cup and tablespoon, the food bag and treat label, everyone who handles the dog for ten minutes.

1. Weigh the dog. The clinic's scale is best. At home, step on a bathroom scale holding the dog, then without it, and subtract. Write the weight in setup so every page pre-fills it.
2. Run the calculator. On the treat budget page, enter the weight, choose the life stage, and enter the calories per cup from the bag and per piece from the treat label. If your veterinarian has given you a daily figure, enter it too. Write the extras budget in the household sheet, and the training portion you will set aside from the meals (a number you choose from the session plan, not the budget).
3. Set aside the training portion. Each morning, measure the training portion out of the day's food into a pouch or jar. What is left goes in the bowls, less any extras you plan to give that day. If the dog finishes the pouch before the day ends, that is the day's training food used up, and the rest of the training that day uses praise, play or life rewards.
4. Test two treats. In a quiet room, offer the dog a piece of its own food and a piece of the other treat, in turn, five times each. Note which one it takes faster and works harder for. Repeat once in the yard or on the doorstep. Write the result in the sessions sheet.
5. Choose a session length. Run one session of two or three minutes on the name game from How dogs learn. Count the rewards. Stop while the dog still wants more. Write the length that worked into the sessions sheet, then use the session calculator to split the day's pieces across your sessions.
6. Agree the words and rules. With everyone who handles the dog, agree one word for each behavior you will teach (name, touch, sit, down, come, and the rest from the cue list), the house rules for furniture, doors, greetings and feeding, and who trains and who feeds. Write them in the household sheet.
7. Check the equipment and the management. Fit the collar with the two-finger test, check the clip on the leash, and put the management items from How dogs learn in place.

8. Your dog Your dog

9. Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Do you know your dog's weight, and does the calculator show an allowance for it? If your veterinarian gave you a daily figure, is it entered?
• Is the training portion taken out of the day's food, not added to it?
• Do you know which two foods your dog will work for, and where each works?
• Is every treat in the pouch free of the foods on the unsafe list, and does any spread you use list no xylitol?
• Is the equipment chosen by kind, fitted, and free of tools that work by pain or fear?
• Does every person in the house use the same word for each cue, and are the words written down?
• Do your sessions end before the dog loses interest?

Worked example

Fictional example: Moose's household checked against the criteria. Weight: 70 lb, entered. Extras budget: 187 kcal, under the assumption that he is still growing, with the veterinarian's confirmation pending. Training portion: about a quarter of his breakfast, set aside each morning, with a second measure on new-behavior days, taken out of the bowl so his day's total is unchanged. Under this chapter's plan, kibble from his ration does routine work, and any cheese or other extra counts against the 187 kcal (one ounce of cheddar is 64 percent of it). Equipment: flat collar with ID and a six-foot leash, with the harness question left to Loose-leash walking. Words: one word per cue, written in the household sheet, with separate words for getting off furniture and for lying down, a pair that is easy to mix up. Sessions: three minutes. What is not checked off is the weight question, which stays open until the veterinarian sees the numbers.

Common mistakes

• Adding treats on top of full meals. Notice it when the bowl portion stays the same on training days.
• Treating the calculator figure as the dog's diet. It is a planning number with a wide margin. The veterinarian's figure wins.
• Pieces too big. If the dog chews for more than a second or two, cut them smaller.
• Using the same high-value treat for everything. It loses value, and there is nothing left for hard places.
• Two words for one cue, or one word for two cues. Listen to what each person actually says in a session; it is often not what they agreed.
• Sessions that end when the dog walks off. That ends on a failure. Stop a little earlier next time.

What is still unresolved

This chapter cannot tell you your dog's real calorie need, whether your dog is at a healthy weight, or whether its diet suits it. Those belong to your veterinarian, who judges weight and body condition over time. It cannot tell you which equipment fits a dog that pulls hard, which Loose-leash walking works through. And the household agreement only works if people keep to it; the sessions sheet and the problem plans from Everyday problems show where they do not.

10. Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• The calculator shows a treat allowance for my dog's weight, and I have written it down.
• The household sheet lists one word per cue, agreed by everyone who handles the dog.
• I tested two treats and know which one my dog works harder for.
• I chose a session length and recorded one session in the sessions sheet.
• The ASPCA Animal Poison Control number and my veterinarian's number are in the help list.
• I weighed the training portion for a week and counted my reward rate on one filmed session. (Go deeper; optional)