Get Rid of the Food Bowl and Resolve your Dogs Behavior Problems
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 เม.ย. 2018
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In this video Jamie talks about why feeding your dog from a food bowl is a bad idea and how doing so can be harmful to both your training and your dogs mental health.
Easy, Effective & Enjoyable Online Dog Training Courses: www.dunbaracademy.com/
I Just did exactly what he told me.
And did it help?
Love this!! Always something that I would recommend. So many things you can teach your dog with their food.
Very true, and if food doesn't work don't forget about life rewards and toys. They both can be good motivators if you dog won't work for food.
My pup is 14 weeks old (apbt) his meals were fed in his crate since he was 8weeks to make a positive association. I also got him a snuffle mat which I really liked using (except that I had to use dry kibble. I like to soak the dry kibble in boiling hot water for 5mins). In the last week & a half or so I've been feeding his meals thru training sessions & it makes a huge difference! Wish I did that from the beginning! Great video & glad I found this channel!
Oh good, we're so glad to hear you and your pup are doing well and benefiting from our videos!
Brilliant!
My girl was abused. She also has food insecurities. She’s stopped wolfing her food down but gets anxious if there’s not always access to food. Wise advice. Unfortunately. This is not practical to implement for me. Or her. She has to sit & wait until I give her her release command to eat. She’s still very food motivated. I use heathy raw foods (carrots & blueberries are a couple favorites) or peanut butter for training. She *always* has to sit, wait, & whatever command she needs to work on to get the special treats. So far it’s working. :)
Hey,
If you can use puzzle toys instead of a bowl this can also help with food struggles. If you aren't having issues with feeding from a bowl and you don't need to change any behavior then there is also no problem with using the food bowl. It is a good way to add some enrichment to your dogs life.
I was having problems with my puppy dumping his bowl over in his kennel and not eating his kibble. I took your advice and started feeding him from out of a rubber toy that he has to turn over again and again to get the food to fall out. It has worked like a charm. Now he eats all of his kibble every meal. Thanks for the tip!
Wonderful! Yeah, eating from a bowl is pretty boring and some dogs will enjoy a little more challenge and novelty! Plus it teaches them to love chew toys and keeps them occupied with an appropriate hobby.
My dog is not motivated by food at all, so I'm going to give this a try. Thank you for the tip!
Excellent! Be sure to give it a try for several days in a row and don't cheat! You can mix up the feeding plan once the motivation level is raised. Make food, fun, interesting, and interactive! Dogs originally hunted for their food and no rabbit ever put itself in bowl or just stood there, action begets motivation! ~ Kelly
Tomorrow the food bowl disappears. It'll be interesting & work! Thanks.
Great video and great tips! Even though my dog has been fed from his food bowl all his life, he is strongly food motivated. Only the two last years I have fed him almost half of his food amount from his bowl, two times a day, and used the rest of the food to train him to come to me when we are out and also to pay me attention when we are walking around for his daily walks. Earlier he totally forgot that I was hanging in the other end of his leash. Now, at least, he pays me attention, and he stops every few metres to look at me, sits down when he wants a food pellet or two. Also he does this when he sees other dogs and humans or noisy children. And I trained him to lie down and be calm for a while without complaining when we are out. I was only able to make him do this with food rewards. My only concern is that if I give him more of his daily food amount when we are out walking, he will get a bloated belly. I am so afraid of that. Also, I have been thinking of giving him some of his food in his chew toy, when I go to work, but I am afraid he will get the food pellets in his throat and choke himself when I am not there to watch over him, and help. I never let him eat when he is alone. But maybe it would be nicer for him to be left alone if he got some food. I love my dog! Great channel! Thank you so much for sharing your tips here! : ) ^..^
Perfect example of making it work for you. A bowl can be useful if used correctly and it sounds like you are nailing it.
It is fabulous that you can feed from a bowl and keep your dog motivated! Many dogs are chow hounds and will eat anywhere, any time. But others are not and we have to become a little more creative and judiciary to get the most out of using food in training. Additionally, even a dog that is a food lover (form a bowl) usually enjoys the challenge and interactive fun of food stuffed toys. Sounds like you are doing a fab job though!
I love this and will be following it in the future. I think it’s also important to mention dogs might seem less motivated if it’s the brand or flavor of the food. Although I’m sure they’ll eat over starving through this method
Yes, certainly tastier food is going to be more motivating. Generally, we encourage people to buy the best dog food they can afford. Better food will be tastier and healthier for your pup, and could easily save you money in the long run on reduced vet bills and better behavior...
Hi! My dog trainer recommended this channel and I’m so glad she did! I’m getting a new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy in about 5 weeks. He’ll be about 10 weeks old. He won’t be potty trained so I will have to do that. I love the concept of feeding my puppy through chew toys and for training, I agree it does seem unnatural for a dog to eat from a bowl. With that said, I was told that consistency and having a routine with regularly scheduled meals is critical for a super young puppy during the housebreaking / potty training stage. Any thoughts? Thank you so much for the work you do, it’s a life saver! 🥰
Hi Laura, we're glad you're enjoying the channel. It's much better to use food in training throughout the day. Regularly scheduled meals are totally uneccessary and often lead dogs to become anxious around meal times. Check out our all-new Essential Puppy Training Course. We just launched it and we're actually doing a 50% off sale for the next few days. Sign up now and you get lifetime access and there's a 30-day satisfaction guarantee so you have a whole month to decide if you like it. If not, let us know and we'll give you a full refund. dunbar.info/puplaunch
Honestly im here because i started feeding my pup w my hands since she was a baby. She’s 2 years old now and shes afraid to use a bowl. Its soooo stressful to get her to eat without me setting aside 20 mins to feed her. I’m here on youtube bc i want to train her how to eat independently. Dont make the mistake i made. Handfeeding can develop bad habits. My dog will starve herself for days if i dont hand feed her. And yes, she loves her food.
Dogs can easily go for several days, even a week or more, without eating food. Your dog may prefer to be hand-fed (probably because she loves hanging out with you!) but if you want to start feeding her from a bowl, or from hollow chew toys, you can do so and she will quickly learn to eat from a bowl without any problems. She might not eat for a few days along the way, hoping that you will hand-feed her, because that's something she will enjoy, but that will not have a negative impact on her health.
Jamie Dunbar thanks for the tips! I realized that she was afraid of her bowl so we started using a new one and slowly getting her use to it. I’m documenting the journey. Its going well so far 🙏🏽❤️
We are having the same issue with our puppy! She will not eat from a bowl. She's high energy and on the thinner side. The bigger she gets the harder it is to keep up with her caloric needs to keep her at a healthy weight. I wish I had ignored this advice and just fed her from a bowl from the beginning like we have with all of our other dogs. Feeding by hand is time consuming and unrealistic to keep up with in the long run, especially with large breed dogs.
Hi James, do you reccommend the puzzle bowls as an alternative to the kong style toys and puzzle toys if we are feeding raw food?
Yes, puzzle bowls are cool, especially for raw. If you're feeding raw you should check out these tips: dunbar.info/RawForTraining
"Stupid bowl filled with food" Great! I like your style.
Great video Jamie.
Agree 100%.
I hand feed my puppies and stuff their Kongs and they chew for their food until they drop lol
Glad you enjoyed it, Jamie just dropped some more knowledge today in our new quick tip that ties into this. If you liked this one the next one will take it up a notch.
Dunbar Academy I'll check it out! Thanks
Adopting a puppy soon. What about timing of bedtime for puppy and final meal of the day? Would I time that final chew toy meal a few hours before bedtime so puppy hopefully gets through the night without needing to potty or have an accident?
And what about those puzzle slow feeders? Does that still count as a “bowl”?
Yes, it's good to start limiting food and water consumption in the hours leading up to bedtime. Most pups will need to go to the potty at least once or twice overnight. You certainly don't want to leave your pup in their crate so long that they have an accident. The puzzle feeders are cool and don't count as a "bowl". The hollow rubber chew toys are even better though because chewing is a naturally calming activity for dogs, so if you can teach your pup to chew on their chew toys when they want to settle down, that's really helpful. Have you been watching our new Puppy Next Door video series? There's lots of great info for puppy owners in those videos.
What about a five year old rescue dog who is underweight? He seems to really struggle with gaining weight and does not have any issue being food motivated when we're training. We had helped him put three pounds on with protein toppers on his food, he still has another fivish to go. The vet asked us to take away the toppers, just give him kibble and now he's losing weight again, even when we increase the kibble. Should we wait on this training idea for when he's at a better weight? Thanks.
For most dogs, hand-feeding is going to make them more eager to eat food than eating elsewhere. So long as your dog is not fearful of people, hand-feeding can be more fun and engaging. If you want your dog to put on weight, adding fat to their diet is probably going to better than protein. Generally speaking though, if you are offering your dog food and they are turning it down, then they are eating enough and you don't need to worry about their weight.
What brand of kibble do you suggest?
We recommend Ziwi Peak, Kiwi Kitchens & Jiminy's
Jamie Dunbar awesome thank you! 🎉👍🏼
What do you suggest for tiny dogs who only get a tiny amount of kibble a day? I'm talking about dogs like the little 4-pound Chihuahua who only gets a third of a cup per day (and probably needs the training more than most). That's barely a handful and would be used up very quickly.
We recommend Ziwi Peak dog food. In part because it's very high quality, but also because it comes in flat square pieces that can be easily cut into four or more smaller pieces with a sharp knife, so that even a third of cup translates into several dozen individual treats.
@@DunbarAcademy Thank you for your suggestion. I appreciate that you took time to reply! :-)
@@GayzeStarr Our pleasure!
Nice video
Thanks Saphira, we truly believe that this info can help people so its nice to get positive feed back. We appreciate you taking the time to do so.
im getting an olde english bulldog puppy what size kong would you suggest i have a puppy one but its small for putting a meal in it , will be transitioning him to raw too
Eventually, you'll probably want the Large, but initially you might want a Medium. You'll want more than one though, probably a half dozen or so. Maybe start with one of each for now and then get more of whichever one your pup prefers, keeping in mind that as they get larger, they'll need larger Kongs
@@DunbarAcademy ok great thanks
I have 5 dogs…so this would be a very time consuming thing. Plus, I don’t feed kibble as the main food. I do try to hand feed balls of fresh meat or chicken necks.
If you have a LOT of chew toys and you assembly line the process it can be pretty quick and efficient. But also, if your dogs are already well-behaved, you can of course continue feeding them however works best for you!
what if you dog destroys chew toys? Also, how does this not increase the food guarding problem?
Has your dog destroyed Kongs? Have you tried the extra tough Kongs? Regardless of whether you feed your dog from a food bowl or from chew toys, it's important to do object exchange exercises to teach your dog to enjoy it when people approach or take their valued objects, especially the ones that hold food
I have a maltipoo, she is driving me nuts. Won't eat at all. Going to try your tip. Pray for me.
Sending happy thoughts to you! Barring a medical issue though, your dog is not going to starve itself. Your dog has probably learned that if they turn down food, you're going to try other things. Perhaps other, tastier food. Or perhaps presented in a more appealing way. Some dogs will happily go for a few days without eating and that's usually nothing to worry about. Of course, other dogs are food-crazy and will eat at every opportunity, but dogs vary a lot!
How can I do it, when my both dogs (3 years and 3 months) are eating complete raw dog food (minced). Now I give food at front of them, they must sit, give me paw and wait. I go sit to the sofa and only if I say yes they start to eat. They can't thing that food is for free. But is not possible to give them this food while day like treat.
Hey Anka, you can still use food stuffed chew toys with a raw diet. In fact we have a video about that in the Kelly's K9 Kitchen playlist on this channel.
The difference between stuffing a chew toy with raw food or stuffing a chew toy with kibble is minimal. You can put the food into a blender and blend the food into a paste, or you can cut the food up into little pieces add a little water then freeze the chew toy to make it harder for the dog to get it out. It may be a little more time consuming than using kibble but it's not impossible, you just need to be creative.
As far as training your dog with a raw food diet goes nothing changes. Cut up the raw food into small pieces and use it to train your dog throughout the day just like you would with Kibble. Heck they even make raw food kibble you can use or you just store the cut up raw food in a bowl in the fridge and go to the fridge several times a day to get it. Its no different that going to the jar to get the pre-measured kibble we suggest using.
How do you handle feeding from a toy if you have multiple dogs and are not there to supervise?
Deb Scharff I wouldn’t leave multiple dogs free alone with their chew toy meals. It’s stressful for most dogs and may invite trouble. Best to separate them. My dogs are trained to station in their crates or on their individual Kursnda cot beds to enjoy their snacks. ~ Kelly
On the surface this sounds logical but is clearly conjecture on the part of the creator. If this were such a miracle solution I'm certain it would have swept the globe in the 4 years since publication...Are there studies that support this training strategy?
Question: Does this Apply to puppies also? If so how do you go about making sure they get the needed nutrition, using this method?
Hey Valensky, yes it applies to puppies as well, in fact its best if you start your puppy off right away with stuffed chew toys. You will still feed your puppy the same food you were going to be feeding them from the start you are just not going to put it in a food bowl. Really the only thing you are changing is swapping out a food bowl for a food stuffed chew toy. You just start with a smaller Kongs and gradually increase the size as the puppy grows.
It will require a little more effort on your part but you can make multiple pre-stuffed chew toys and store them in the fridge then you can give them to your puppy through out the day. It's also good if you are using your dogs regular food when you are training throughout the day so either way the puppy is getting the same amount of food.
@@DunbarAcademy Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply. I so appreciate it. I got a 12 week border collie and she is very tough to tame but that seemed to help a bit. The only thing is the kong we got was too small for her and she lost interest, i still hope to make this work with a bigger one. Any way thanks again. Ill keep watching you guys
@@3VLN You are very welcome, make sure to let us know how things go once you have the bigger Kong. We would love to hear about your progress.
@@3VLN If you're having trouble with your dog losing interest in chew toys, then feed them ALL of their food out of chew toys. They will be very interested in emptying their chew toys in just a day or two!
@@DunbarAcademy Sounds good, will apply this and report back. thanks again for the needed support you guys !
🤙
My dog is not near perfect yet. He is not even 6 months old. When my dog actually becomes "perfect" enough, can I still feed him from Kong toys, instead of a food bowl? I am a new dog owner, so I don't know how this works. Many sources say that dogs will need to eliminate soon after they eat. If they spend a lot of time throughout the day chewing on stuffed Kong toys, can their potty time still remain predictable, especially the time they need to go poop? Should I just put a bunch of stuffed Kongs for my dog to eat throughout a course of a few hours, or should I give him one and wait until he finishes it before I give him a second one? This part has always been very unclear to me. By the way, I learned about feeding the dog from Kongs because I read the book, "Before & After Getting Your Puppy". It's a very good book, but obviously it's a bit too late for me. I read it two months after I got my dog when he was 5 months old. I have missed the majority of the development stages. I want to switch to feeding from Kongs, but I can't find the details in that book. Thank you very much.
Feeding from Kongs and other chew toys is a useful technique all throughout the life of your dog. Any time you want to give your dog a project to keep them busy and help them settle down quietly, stuffed chew toys can be useful. If your dog eats smaller amounts throughout the day, as opposed to one or two big meals, it will have less of an effect on the timing of their poops. You can feed throughout the day from chew toys and during training and your dog will probably still develop a fairly consistent time of day for their poops. It's OK for you to give multiple stuffed chew toys at once, no need to make them finish one before they get the next, but it can be good to take stock at the end of the day as to how much they've eaten, and it's good to clean them on a regular basis.
I want to get my dogs off table scraps but they will litterally starve themselves when i try giving dog food. Can you help?
Unless your dog has a serious medical condition, they will not "literally starve themselves" if you provide them with food. They may not eat for one, two, three, four, or more days, especially if this fasting behavior has been reinforced in the past with tastier food when you break down and go back to table scraps. That has taught the dog that if they refuse dog food, they'll get better food. So now you've got some un-training to do. But it's a pretty simple process. You can check with your vet if you're worried, but it's not unheard of or necessarily unhealthy for a dog to go for a few days without eating, assuming you are providing them with access to reasonable food.
My dog does not have bad habits. She just keeps taking her food out of the bowl and eating it in a certain spot in the living room. I've tried putting her bowl in that spot and moving it daily back but it did not help. Not sure what to do with that.
If it doesn't bother you, there's no need to stop her. We all have our little quirks. You could try feeding her in a different room and closing the door or installing a baby gate so it's impossible to carry the food to that spot in the living room. You could also try hand-feeding her just to see what happens.
I've been doing this for months and it's made zero difference to his behaviour (running off for food/nervous agression/reactivity). Plus Processed kibble is not the healthiest.
What have you been doing for months? Have you been using the food in training? I'm not sure what you mean by "running off for food" as a behavior problems, but certainly food can be very useful for dealing with anxiety based problems like aggression and reactivity. Have you been doing classical conditioning exercises?
@@DunbarAcademy Hand feeding for months. He runs off if he can smell food (bread, discarded scraps, picnic etc)
@@tallulahsuki71 You have to train your dog to listen to you even in the presence of food as a distraction. Put some bread somewhere where he can't get to it but he can smell it and then work on some basic obedience skills. He won't listen at first, he'll be too distracted, but try again in an hour, or two hours. Over time, the smell of the bread will become less and less of a distraction. No one (not even your dog) can be excited and distracted by the same unchanging stimulus forever. Eventually he'll listen and you can get him to perform some obedience commands. When he does something particularly impressive, you could even reward him with... a piece of bread. That will blow his mind! The lesson you're trying to teach is: whatever it is he wants, the only way he can get it is by listening to you!
@@DunbarAcademy I've been trying for 11 years! :) He's very determined. His obedience is amazing - unless there is food outside. Inside/garden etc,
he's fine. Not in a park.
what about a pregnant or nursing mothers? what kind of beginner training can a breeder do with babies still in home from a baby until they go to their new homes??
Check out our free dog training and behavior course for dog breeders: www.dunbaracademy.com/courses/dog-breeder-program
Ok but what if you only have time to train once a day. Should you only feed your dogs when you are able to train them? I was taught that keeping a consistent food schedule is important. I can only train my puppy once or twice a day for like 10 minutes and she's outside protecting my animals the rest of the time as she is a Maremma Tatra mix livestock guardian dog. It sounds great in theory but is difficult to maintain for those with busy lifestyles. (No hate though. I love most of your videos :)
You can always feed your dog most of their food from hollow chew toys, which you can provide at any time, including once per day. However, it's actually better to feed your dog on an unpredictable and inconsistent schedule, all throughout the day, instead of regularly scheduled meals, which is very unnatural. Either way, you can feed however much you can by hand during training, then put the rest into hollow chew toys and give them to your dog whenever it is most convenient to you. Your dog will appreciate the mental stimulation that comes from eating from a chew toy instead of a bowl.
So my dog will ONLY eat from my hand. So how can I balance this? He refuses to eat from a bowl. But he only eats ALL his kibble in one feeding, the kibble he never takes for training, he refuses it. He’s not destructive at all, behaves very well when left alone. The only prb is I’m his only food source. I’ve tried moving the bowl, putting enticing things in it, nothing works.
If you don't offer your dog any other food, eventually your dog will eat the food you offer in their bowl. It might take a few days, but it's no big deal if your dog doesn't eat for a day, or two, or three, so long as you are offering them food. If you're worried about it you can always ask your veterinarian, but what has happened is you've trained your dog to refuse food in a bowl. They've learned that if they refuse the food in the bowl for a day or two, you will feed it to them by hand eventually, which he probably likes. Hold firm and eventually they will eat from a bowl.
@@DunbarAcademy I did that when he was raw feeding. I wound up with an underweight 12 month old newf. So in order to get him to even eat I started hand feeding. He will eat from food dispensing balls, off the ground too. He will eat tiny amounts from a bowl, but not much.
@@MaximillianandRubyGrace As long as you are offering your dog food, you don't need to worry about him being underweight. Your dog won't starve himself if he has access to food. He may not eat for a few days, he may weigh less than you would like him to weigh, but if you're offering food everyday, he will eat enough. That's Dr. Dunbar's advice as a veterinarian and animal behaviorist.
That neck beard is legendary
I wish it continued down under his shirt.
tops
Glad you enjoyed it, keep an eye out as we will be continuing this series starting next week. More helpful hints to come.
Why does my dog turnover the food bowl?
For fun? To look for more food? Ennui? It's hard to say for sure? But if you're feeding your dog from a bowl, hopefully they're well-trained!
What if you don't feed kibble? I feed a raw diet.
It's still fun to cut up chicken necks and stuff them into rubber toys for extraction. I usually do this outside or in a crate. Sometimes I just confine the dog to the kitchen where I can easily clean the floor after. Raw mashes or blends also work extremely well stuffed into toys! Plus if you buy some super larger raw, meaty bones they are a project in and of themselves! My boys took turns with a sheep head a few weeks ago. This weekend they'll get an entire pork hock. ~ Kelly
Don't.
This is only manageable if you feed processed pellets from a bag.
It is possible to find processed dog food in bags that is well made from whole foods, nutritionally balanced, healthy, and tasty! But it's not cheap. It is also possible to make your own kibble from whole foods yourself, but that's not quick or easy. At any rate, food can be a very useful tool for resolving lots of behavior problems
If you dont feed kibble this becomes a problem. Imagine trying to do this with a half lb of raw meat organs bones egg etc.
Feeding raw diet definitely makes it harder, but we have a lot of tips and tricks that make it achievable. We're actually planning on doing a new video on how best to use raw diet in training. Stay tuned!
The worse invention ever made for a dog! Good info....
With the hollow rubber chew toy being perhaps the best!
@@DunbarAcademy I love the Buster Cube.
On next weeks episode! Get rid of the bottle, and resolve your babies behavior problems! People had to hunt for their food back in the stone age, so why shouldn't your baby?
Ha! Yes, well, you're not far off! While it's not age appropriate to expect babies to work, it can certainly be good to ask children to do age-appropriate chores. When dogs and people get everything they want without any work or effort, they don't really value what they get. What's more, earning what you get can be very satisfying and motivating. But hey, if you're feeding you're dog from a bowl and you're happy with their behavior, that's great, keep doing what you're doing!
Get rid of crates
Crates can be a really helpful tool in managing a new puppy or dog's behavior while they are still learning household rules, especially for people who are unable to supervise their dog's every waking moment. That said, if you use them correctly, you won't NEED to use them forever. You can teach your dog to follow household rules and then use crates only occasionally, for emergencies, for travel, or for other special situations. If you use them correctly, your dog will learn to enjoy spending time in their crate, which becomes a nice doggy den where they can relax when they want a little quiet time by themselves.
-Jamie
so i feed my dog raw meat so how would this work ?
We've got a video coming out soon about food, but first, we'd encourage you to consider looking at some of the very healthy dry kibbles available, which are so convenient, at least for now while you're actively working on improving your dog's behavior. If you're committed to raw you can make little balls and freeze them for hand-feeding, and you can stuff raw diet into a hollow chew toy easily
I raw feed, but use a dehydrator to make treats for training. Raw mince goes into hollow toys and usually frozen. Chunks likewise. Large bone in pieces of meat are great enrichment on their own.
Evie Mc, beat us too it. Those ideas are spot on and great advice. Heck you can even stick bones into Kongs as well and freeze them with the other items. That will make it a double treat for the dog. Just make sure the bones are raw and never cooked as they can become brittle and splinter.
This is a popular question and I am happy to see raw feeders here! Please note my response in the comment directly above yours, thanks~ Kelly
What a load of crap. Dogs eat because they are hungry. Are you going to release him into the wild? No. They are DOMESTICATED. Too many treats for praise that is useless rewards. A dog does not need treats. All dogs who are bored because they only get one walk a day, if that. Dogs are trapped with humans. Get them outside as much as possible.
It's true, a lot of people give too many treats, and dogs don't really need treats, especially if you make use of their daily allotment of food to communicate with them, teach them valuable skills, teach them to pay attention to you, and motivate them so they enjoy doing the activities you want them to do. The point of this video is that their daily allotment of food can be a really useful tool in training, so long as you don't just put in a bowl and walk away.
Getting outside and providing mental and physical stimulation is an important part of caring for a dog, but they don't always solve behavior problems. Sometimes you need to train the dog, and when you need to train the dog, food can be a very valuable tool.
-Jamie
uuuuuuugh! so much blah blah blah ok we get it... food bowl bad, what do we replace the bowl with???
It's in the video! Hand-feed during training, toss into their kibble or onto their bed to encourage them to love those areas, and put the food into hollow chew toys and other enrichment feeders, like Snuffle mats. It really depends on what aspects of your dog's behavior you want to change. Of course, if you're happy with their behavior, you can use a food bowl if you like
This makes no sense
Which part?
Too many generalizations, utter b.s. All of my dogs have eaten from bowls, all have been perfectly willing to train with me for treats OR praise. My 5.5 year old Belgian would do a backflip just for a liver treat. I had an old girl who at 17 would shove her way past the big dogs if I was giving out treats for behavior, she'd still offer sits, paw and jump over bars on the ground. The only time a bowl is not used is if they are getting chunks of raw in the yard.
If you don't have problems with your dog, that's wonderful! Unfortunately, there are lots of people who have trouble getting their dogs to behave, and a lot of those people have trouble motivating or rewarding their dogs. Maybe someday in the future you'll get a dog that is a little less food motivated than the dogs you have had in the past. If that ever happens you'll know what to do! Thanks for watching ;-)