Jackpot
Week 3
Introduction
A Jackpot is a powerful reward used in dog training to celebrate a behavior your puppy did especially well. Instead of giving one treat, you deliver many small treats in a row to show your puppy that what they just did was extremely valuable.
This creates a stronger positive memory for that behavior and helps your puppy learn faster.
Quick Notes
A Jackpot is a series of 8–10 small treats given one at a time.
Treats should be delivered quickly in short intervals.
The treats should be very small pieces, not one large treat.
The goal is to create a strong positive moment that your puppy remembers.
Jackpots are often used to reinforce very important behaviors, such as coming when called.
Demonstration
Teacher Demonstration with puppy in class
In this demonstration, Laura and Watson show how to use a Jackpot reward during recall training. After calling the puppy and rewarding the successful recall, she delivers multiple small treats in quick succession while praising the puppy. This teaches the puppy that coming when called can lead to an especially exciting reward.
Class Experience
Practice at home!
Practice using jackpots when your puppy performs a behavior you want to strongly reinforce, such as coming when called or offering a new behavior correctly for the first time.
Call your puppy, and when they come to you successfully, deliver several small treats one after another while praising them enthusiastically.
Upload a video
Be sure to send us a video demonstrating this behavior as well so we can give you personalized training advice with our virtual video service.
More Discussion
Additional tips and content
A jackpot is not about the size of the treat, but the number of treats delivered in succession.
Many tiny treats in a row are more effective than giving one large treat.
You can optionally use a special word before delivering the jackpot (for example, “big treat” or “super cookie”) to signal that a big reward is coming.
Jackpots can be used when:
Your puppy performs a behavior especially well
Your puppy succeeds at something they were struggling with
Your puppy offers a new behavior for the first time
Because jackpots create strong positive associations, they are especially helpful for reinforcing important skills like recall.