What? No treats?

Most dog trainers use treats to 'train' dogs to follow basic commands.  Is your dog really trained though?  The word trained means to be proficient with instruction and practice.  Is your dog trained to obey the word come using treats?  Probably not.  If your dog is off leash and you yell 'come,' he very well may choose to respond to that command if he is not more interested in something else.  If your dog spots an interesting and tasty treat on the ground, chances are pretty good he will not respond to your 'command,' but instead run off with the treat.  Does this mean your dog is trained?  I don't think so.

The problem with treat training is that it bribes your dog to follow a command.  It gives the dog an option of following the command you have given it.  I'll give you a yummy treat if you just sit when I say.  Your dog should sit when you command it without a treat.  Basic commands including sit, down, stay, come and heel are all important commands for the dog's manners, safety and your peace of mind.  The fact is that treat training is a much slower process than without them and they do not produce reliable results.

In addition to the lack of reliable results, treat training takes respect out of the picture.  Your dog may trust and love you with treat training.  This doesn't mean he respects you though.  Your dog doesn't respect you if he doesn't come when you command it because he finds something more interesting than you.

This is not to say that you shouldn't use positive reinforcement.  Calm praise and lots of it are encouraged when training your dog, but gentle and effective corrections must be used as well.  Let me give you an example.  When teaching your dog to stay you can't expect to continually reward your dog with treats to learn the command.  As soon as something more interesting comes along that dog is getting up.  You tell your dog to 'stay,' he stays and you release him and praise him.  If you tell your dog to 'stay,' and  he gets up, he must learn that he cannot do that with a gentle, quick and effective correction back to the spot you told him to stay on.  If he is not corrected, what does the word, 'stay,' mean to your dog?  Stay when you get something out of it you want?

Truly training a dog will achieve results you can rely on and build a stronger bond between you.  Your dog will listen to your commands and obey them because, yes, they want to please you and because they respect you.  They are not looking for a reward for a simple command.  They are not conditioned to simply respond to a stimuli.  They know sit means sit!