I get this question a lot. Usually people say something like "My dog will do anything for a treat, but when I don't have one, they don't listen at all. I don't want to have to keep using treats"
So I want to try to clear some things up here.
To Treat or Not to Treat
The first part of your dog's life with you (and honestly most of their life) SHOULD be spent doing positive reinforcement and building trust with food and relationship skills. You SHOULD be rewarding your dog all the time when you're teaching them something new. And that should last a ton of repetitions. But I often times in beginner class hear people wanting to stop giving treats before the dog even has a solid understanding of the expectations. What's the rush to take them away?
So here's the thing, there is no special time limit on when to take treats away, in fact I still give them to my dogs. The difference is that when you train them the right way, your dog won't need treats to listen, it will just be a nice thing you will want to do to continue to reinforce training, especially since they keep listening so well :-).
However, there are steps that might help you understand better why and how we use treats in training sessions to begin with.
Teaching a New Command
Any time we teach a new command or behavior, we have to reward them for doing that behavior. Seems simple, right? Your dog learns new things by making associations from repetition and consistent reinforcement. Your dog has learned what "Good Dog" means because you've always paired that word/sound with praise and treats over and over again, so they wag their tail because they know these are associated. And yes, treats are the best form of reward when it comes to training dogs, and you will need a lot of them.
So the first step to training your dog is teaching them what that word/command means and ensuring that they understand the expectations. And since dogs don't understand English words until we teach them, we use treats and your hand to guide them into the behavior we want.
If you're teaching your dog to lie-down for example, you teach them the behavior itself through repetition with a lure (a really good treat in your hand that you can use to guide them). Your dog has to view the treat you're using as motivating enough that they have no problems stopping what they are doing to work with you.
When your dog lies down, mark the behavior verbally and repeat. Once it 'clicks' with your dog, and your dog can anticipate your lure/hand signal by performing it successfully with minimal guidance, then you can pair the word you want to use with it, and then start to remove treats and give feedback for non-compliance.
Consequences for Ignoring
The thing about treating your dog is, the treat itself isn't going to be enough to keep your dog from making a mistake. Your dog is going to make a LOT of mistakes in training. And often times this means we as the handler need to learn and develop a lot of patience. Mistakes are good, that is your opportunity to teach your dog. If we avoid letting your dog make mistakes, they won't learn to problem solve situations on their own. Which will be more work for the handler in the long run.
Treats and praise reward good behavior, but the only way your dog will learn to make good choices on their own, is to give them corrective feedback for non-compliance.
AKA consequences for not listening.
*It's important to note, if your dog doesn't fully understand what the criteria is for your command, you can't correct your dog for making a 'mistake' yet.
Now that your dog has learned how to lie-down successfully through a TON of repetitions and treats , you can remove the treats and tell your dog to "Down" again. If your dog decides that since they are not getting a treat, they're not going to listen, you would give your corrective marker word "No" or "Uh Uh", and motion toward the ground in a similar motion as your lure. If you have done the foundations for 'down' properly, your dog should lay back down after you communicate this, regardless if you have a treat or not. If your dog blows you off completely, put them on leash and wait it out, or repeat the foundations for down to ensure your dog knows what you're asking them to do. If you want your dog to listen without treats, you have to teach them that they have to listen without treats.
This training concept applies to recall as well with people who say that their dog only listens to a recall command when they have a treat. This is because they weren't conditioned properly to understand consequences of ignoring a command before they were taken to higher distracting environments. Train this command in the home first so that after you teach your dog what the command means through a ton of repetitions and treats, you can start to correct your dog for not listening and teach them how to make better choices on their own in a more controlled environment.
Same concept applies: After you're certain your dog understands what "come" means, you can now remove treats and correct your dog for not listening. Doing this in the home first lets you be successful and retrieving your dog and walking them back to the spot you called them in. If you've taken my classes before, I teach a 'catch and release' game where you practice calling your dog to you then 'releasing' them back to freedom in the house, then repeat and handle any behaviors accordingly. You can't teach a dog how to make better choices on their own, off leash in the middle of a 10 acre field, so let your dog fail in the home first so you can teach them successfully.
All in all, if you follow these guidelines for training, you will not need to use treats to convince your dog to pay attention to you. Focus on connection through proper communication and develop a common language together so that training isn't frustrating for you or your dog. Teach what you want, perform many many repetitions, and once your dog knows what you want, remove the treats and hold them accountable for ignoring.
