31/08/2026
HOW MUCH ARE YOU REWARDING YOUR DOG IN EVERYDAY LIFE?
When your dog looks at you, what are they looking for?
Are they seeking communication with you? A shared moment, information, reassurance or connection?
Or are they looking through you towards the food or toy they have learnt to expect?
Modern dog-training culture increasingly encourages us to reward every glance, every check-in and every behaviour we want repeated. We have become very good at creating behaviour quickly…..but speed is not the only measure of good training.
When the priority is producing observable behaviour as efficiently as possible, it is easy to overlook the dog’s emotional experience and the relational connection developing between dog and handler.
The behaviour may be present, but what is the dog actually relating to…..you, or the payment it expects you to produce?
I am not opposed to reward. I use food and toys extensively within my dog-sport training. But I use them deliberately, within a particular context, to enhance motivation, interaction and the work we share.
I do not want reward to become the currency underlying every aspect of my relationship with my dogs.
In everyday life, I do not pay my own dogs with food or toys for ordinary domestic behaviour. Their fundamental learning, cooperation and understanding are built through relationship, communication, clarity and shared expectations.
I preserve food and toy rewards primarily for dog sport, where they have a specific purpose and retain particular value.
This is not a suggestion that inexperienced handlers should abruptly stop rewarding their dogs. Reward can be an important and necessary tool while people develop their timing, communication and understanding.
But I do think we should examine the destination of our training rather than allowing reward to become a permanent substitute for relationship.
Not every interaction needs to become a transaction.
Sometimes the dog should look at us because we matter. Not simply because we might be holding something they want.
When your dog looks at you, what are they looking for?
