There’s a lot of debate over the best way to motivate dogs during training. Of course, not all
rewards work for all dogs, but a recent study has identified the most consistent winner: food.

While this won’t come as a surprise to most trainers, another research finding from the same
study might. Although food outperformed all other rewards in terms of speeding up the rate at
which dogs learn, as the training advanced, food lost its edge.

Megumi Fukuzawa, Naomi Hayashi, Comparison of 3 different reinforcements of learning in
dogs (Canis familiaris), Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research,
ISSN 1558-7878, 10.1016/j.jveb.2013.04.067.