We had a trainer come out to our house when we had a rottweiler puppy a few years ago. He absolutely disagreed with the use of treats, except for the REALLY REALLY important commands. He also said to be positive and use calm praise, not excited. He worked wonders on our puppy and our older dog. I admit I rarely give tinkerbell treats, mostly because she tends to be a picky eater and giving her treats makes her worse. But even so, she knows lots of tricks and is perfectly potty trained and I just give her a calm "good girl" and a tummy rub or something. The trainer had said if you are going to give your dog treats, don't give them one every time, only every other or every 3 times and vary it so you don't teach them to count ;)

I was a high school teacher until November. I taught kids for over 20 years and learned that there's nothing like positive reinforcement. It's the only way I got the results I wanted without a struggle, it makes the environment very pleasant, my children felt loved and important and I had very little stress. That doesn't mean that I didn't yell at a student, or call home if necessary, nor did I give them candy to take out their books, etc. when they got into class. I did walk around saying "Good" to every student who had his or her book and pen out and was ready to work right away. Before long, most of them wanted that "Good." With some classes I was able to drop it at some point and with others I had to do it until the last day of the school year.

I also feel that whoever invented bribery was brilliant! If you can get a student, or a dog to do what they're supposed to do by bribing them and consistently praise them afterwards, they'll most likely learn to do it without the bribery at some point. They still want that praise. Everyone wants to feel loved and important.

Just wanted to share my experience - take it for what it's worth to you.

Judy

Gypsy will go the pee pad to wee and sometimes she'll look at me as if to say, "Aren't I clever, can I have a treat?" and other times she'll just wandered off without a care in the world! :rolleyes: