Does Tossing Treats Lead to Sniffing?!

I've heard from many people that they are afraid to toss treats because their dog starts sniffing the floor even more.

When I first started training service dogs at a local organization, it was against the rules for any foster to toss treats for their dogs, and they only reluctantly made an exception for me doing the final training. It was thought that most people would accidentally train the dogs to snatch up stray cookies on the floor!

The organization eventually changed and decided that tossing treats can actually increase the dog's focus on us AND make it clearer what the rules are on when they can take food off the ground and when they can't.

I am a huge fan of using cookie tosses in my training.

Cookie tosses increase focus and build the pattern of the dog running right back to me.

My goals when doing a cookie toss

1. I cue the cookie toss before the treat leaves my hand (ideally before my hand even moves!)

   
   

   I don't want the dog to watch my treat hand for information on when the next reward is coming. This is important no matter how you deliver the reward!

   
   

   What is extra important for treat tosses is that the reward cue means look for the treat that is going to be tossed. It does not mean they can grab any food that is on the ground!

2. The dog knows that my cookie toss cue is not a free-for-all all. Eventually, my goal is to have “sad cookies” on the ground and the dog will run out to get the treat I tossed, and then run right back to me without investigating the other stuff.

This goes back to that 1st goal of having my cookie toss cue mean look for a thrown cookie, not any cookie!

My cue "get it" tells the dog that one, and only one, treat is being tossed.

3. The dog expects to run right back to me. I train this at the foundation stage of cookie toss, followed quickly by a reward from my hand, and repeat. It becomes a fast pattern and works on the dog's ability to stay connected with me when at a distance!

   
   

   This also implies that my cookie toss cue, "get it", means I'm only ever tossing 1 treat!! The dog doesn't have to wonder if there are more out there, it's 1 cookie per toss. Multiple treats not only have a different cue, but a different picture as I always scatter them at my feet.

Grace demos working on these expectations!

This is an example with Loot working on that 2nd goal of a cookie toss and returning to me, ignoring the sad cookie on the ground! I warm up with food held out in my hand before putting the distraction on the ground. And I have a foot target to help him make good choices!

Having these expectations also allows me to evaluate the dog’s focus.

If I think the dog is recovered from a distraction and ready to work again, I can test their ability by doing cookie tosses in different directions. If I toss the cookie in the direction they were distracted by, can they still run out to get the treat and then instantly turn back to me? Or do they get sucked into staring or sniffing?? I often do cookie tosses in all different directions to check that I’m not missing anything and they are ready to go!

After I think the dog is ready, then we go to work again!

If your dog need help with sniffing and focus around distractions, take a look at my trial prep classes. Bye Bye Cookie looks a lot at teaching our dogs reinforcement strategies and what the rules are! Tons of focus work in that class as the dogs learn to work around unguarded rewards, with distractions!

And check out my free facebook group discussing building ring confidence! This discussion was originally started there!