Where do you draw the line for treating good behaviour?

[gsdemack]

My puppy is 11 weeks and I have started rewarding behaviour when she comes away from furniture if I ask her to or come down from jumping up on something.

Is it ok to keep giving her treats for this or will I end up spoiling her.

[Shade]

11 weeks is still young, I would continue for a few more weeks treating each time. Then slowly phase them out and only treat every second then third time. Praise is a great reward that you also always have in your back pocket

You can also try using a tug (gently), ball, or toy that squeaks in place of the treat to reward

[Chaps]

I have been using a squeaker ball instead of a treat for such behavior and it has been working well.


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[gsdraven]

Remember to give her the reward after she has been on the ground for more than 5 seconds. If she is reliably responding to the command, then start phasing out the reward: this means not having it in sight and random food reinforcement and praise reinforcement. Do not do it every 2nd or 3rd time, it needs to be truly random.

[Castlemaid]

Yes, keep treating everytime for quite a while yet. Then as others said, start phasing the treats out, reward randomly, but do this gradually.

If you don't want her on the furniture in the first place, rewarding her to get down won't teach her not to get up (though it is great that she is getting off when you tell her to, keep that part of training up).

To keep her from getting up on the furniture, you will have to supervise her and stop her from getting up. Tell her no, or ah-ah!!! when she redirects her attention to you, treat and praise for NOT getting on the furniture. Catch her doing what you want her to be doing in the first place (even if it is not doing anything at all, like sitting or lying on the floor, as opposed to sitting or lying on the furniture), and reward THAT!

If you don't mind her on the furniture, but just want to make sure she gets off when you tell her too, then, nevermind.

[martemchik]

Once you know she knows what is expected...you can start doing it random. Until then, do not stop with the treats. So if you have to say it twice, she doesn't know it yet. If you have to point (unless that's a signal you'll use), she doesn't know it yet. Once you can tell that she knows "off" then you start making it random.