BackInBlack

I have never done it without food or a toy. Rommel was taught with a toy, and now I use food and a toy. Ziris is being taught with a clicker and food. Brownie was first just taught to walk with his head up (I didn't care about position) just head up....with a food lure. Now I am using the clicker to mark the position.

I think the reason people like to use food and not a toy (this is the way it was explained to me and it makes sense) is that the dog never has to break the position to get the reward.

That makes sense to me.

I know people who use the Ivan method for training and their dogs look awesome though. I still highly recommend his training method because I have seen the results of it on my friends Malinois. They have unbelievable obedience. I think this is a combination of using his methods and her awesome work ethic with her dogs, but the results speak for themselves. This was also the method I used with Rommel later in his training. This was kind of a breakthrough for him, all of his obedience improved.

I think in the learning stage of training ANYTHING, you need a motivator (food, toy, etc) If not, most dogs would burn out very easily.

There are several ways to get there, you just have to find what works best for your dog.

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