training without treats??

I need to teach Oscar some basic commands, manners and maybe some tricks. Everything I have read about involves treats as a reward. It does not bother me that food is the reward, but I don't want him to gain weight. What else can I do? It seems to work ok if I just pet him as a reward, but I've read that may not be enough to teach him.


As you all know, I am very worried that Oscar will develop a back back. Sorry to sound like a broken record on that issue! If he gains too much weight, it would be terrible for his back. He's a nice weight now. I have to be careful b/c my parents and FH's parents see him a lot and they ALL sneak him a lot of food. It's not worth trying to stop them, they love to feed him. So, when Oscar is not with our parents, I want to make sure not to overfeed him.

I am willing to use treats some of the time to train him. I was told to cut back on his regular food on days he has treats. Is that the only solution?

What about tiny tiny tiny pieces of a treat, like miniscule?
Or, an incredible amount of enthusiam/praise when he needs the reward?

I'm definately not a dog trainer, and my three doxies were so stubborn, but with my pugs, the only thing that worked with them was tiny pieces of low calorie biscuits as a reward. Seems like food is the only thing they really responded to.

Good luck and I think you are very wise to be concerned about a daschund's weight and back, so don't feel like a broken record, these are very real concerns you have.

Good luck with Oscar's training

We started training Lucy with treats. Once she got the idea of the trick we stopped with the regular treat reward. Now when she obeys, I get all exited tell her what a good girl she is, hug her, pet her. And that seems to work too! She just loves praise. Also try using her toys. Make her sit and reward her by giving her the kong.