One of the most common questions dog owners ask is:

“Will my dog only listen if I’ve got treats?”

It’s a completely reasonable worry. Nobody wants a dog who responds only when food is visible, or to feel like they’ll be carrying chicken in their pockets forever.

The good news is that this isn’t how reward-based training works at all.

Why We Use Lots of Rewards at the Start

When a dog is first learning a behaviour, rewards are frequent and predictable. This is deliberate and important.

Clear, consistent rewards:

• Help dogs understand which behaviours are worth repeating
• Build confidence
• Speed up learning
• Reduce frustration

At this stage, rewards act as clear feedback: “Yes, that’s the behaviour I want.”

This isn’t bribery — it’s effective learning.

What Happens As Training Progresses

As a behaviour becomes more reliable, the way we reward it changes.

You don’t stop rewarding —
you stop rewarding in exactly the same way every time.

A useful comparison is this:

You wouldn’t stop paying someone once they’d learned their job…
but you also wouldn’t hand them a £5 note every five minutes.

Instead, rewards become:

• Less predictable
• More varied (food, praise, play, access to things the dog enjoys)
• Still frequent enough to keep the behaviour strong

We Don’t Fade Rewards — We Fade Predictability

This is the most important point.

✨ We don’t fade rewards. We fade predictability. ✨

Behaviours that are rewarded unpredictably are actually more resilient. Dogs keep offering the behaviour because it might pay off.

On the other hand, behaviour that is never rewarded will eventually fade — whether you’re a dog or a human.

What This Means in Real Life

Reward-based, force-free training doesn’t create dogs who only work for food. It creates dogs who:

• Understand what’s expected of them
• Feel confident and motivated
• Choose behaviours that work for them

The goal isn’t to stop rewarding —
it’s to reward fairly, sensibly and in ways that fit real life.

That’s how you get reliable behaviour without pressure, fear or force 🐾