Rewarding your dog and the psychology of treats Australia

What is a treat and why do we give them to our dogs?

Treats can be defined very officially as something like "a gift that gives great pleasure" or "food given as an expression of friendly regard"... but in general terms, a treat is really just something to show your friends a little bit of love.

Dogs understand food, much better than thankyou cards or flowers, so the dog treats that work best are usually the edible kind. That's where dog treats come in, it's a pretty simple equation for our furry friends; food = good times, really tasty food = really good times!

Sure, treats can be an incentive for training and encouraging good behaviour, but what about just showing a little appreciation for your dog and letting them know that you like them just the way they are?

Treats can be just that, a display of how much you enjoy your dog's company and a declaration that you value their hair, their dribble and their bad doggy breath. Forget needing results from treats, just use them as a sure fire way to make dogs understand you love them.

There are all kinds of tips on the best treats to buy and which ones will work the best for those awesome ‘roll-over' and ‘sit' moves you have been trying, but is that really what the essence of the whole treat thing is about?

So what works best?

Its not rocket science that dogs love what we love. If we get excited about something usually our dogs will too. Think of that high-pitched excited tone you use to get fluff ball into the back of the car, or the ‘yummy eat ‘em all ups' baby voice we here when trying to upsell the canned food... dogs trust us, they know we have the upper hand in intelligence. Treats will work best when we're excited to be giving them.

That said, let's not give our loved ones anything we wouldn't want to eat ourselves. If you wouldn't be excited to eat it yourself, its no use trying to be Robert De Niro, you can't act that well (and dogs know it). Dog Treats should be exciting to us too. The experience goes two ways, you should be giving something you actually enjoy giving. That means great ingredients, chemical free, being sure about where they actually came from and, above all, being a bit appetising even to us.

So, let's combine all these theories: dog treats can be just a sign of affection, we should be excited about them too and let's only give them the good stuff. That's what Jollie does, we deliberately create treats that excite dog owners, not just dogs. Just look at our packaging - do we do all that just for dogs? We use premium ingredients, human grade stuff that is the same going into any product you and I eat, if not better. No mystery meats either. Its all manufactured to human food standards and yep, it looks good. You'll want to eat it too. But most of all, we cater to people who just want to show a bit of ‘I think you're alright', birthdays, vet trips, been away for a while type of stuff to our friends that deserve it most, our dogs.

Article by Acacia Crosbie from Jollie Gourmet Dog Treats