| the one thing ALL my trainers comment on is my dog's desire to please me. he is very "honest" in training - he tries hard and only makes mistakes when he doesn't understand or i'm not clear. he has NEVER willfully disobeyed me.
that being said, i use food all the time in training. food is not something i use to bribe him into doing something -- it is a tool i use him to show him that what he is doing is what i want. he understands food comes from me and he has to do what i want to get it. it is an invaluable training tool to me for teaching new behaviors.
(you've already used corrections with him, if you follow the same line of reasoning then, he's only doing behaviors because he's scared of the consequence [pulling=choking] and not because he wants to please you. don't get me wrong, i think corrections are necessary in moderation during training, but your logic in regards to food is somewhat flawed)
by already teaching him loose leash walking, you have already put rules to walking on a leash that are different than what he will face in conformation.
it is VERY hard for a dog to understand that you want something as specific as lining the head up with the butt when you're not asking for any criteria with it more specific than "somewhere in the vicinity of my left side with a slack leash" -- do you see what i mean?
body awareness is a difficult concept for dogs, much more difficult than teaching a position in relation to YOU.
if you don't want to use food, you don't have to. but my basic premise is the same: you can either extinguish this behavior by using correction or through rewarding something else instead. you can use whatever you want as reward (verbal praise, play, food, etc). and again, you can try both ways and see what works for your dog - no one method is fail proof for all dogs. it is trail and error to learn what works for you.
if it were me and i required was a loose leash walk next to me and i wanted to extinguish the walking directly in my path behavior, i would use positive reinforcement to teach the dog where i did want him until he stopped trying to go to the spot where i didn't want him.
i would start by immediately stopping whenever the dog got in front of me. i would keep cookies in my left pocket and take one out with my left hand without saying anything to the dog. i would place my left hand with the cookie down behind my left buttock. i would then start moving forward and take a few steps with the dog walking behind me focused on the cookie. this will cause the dog to have to straighten his body out and stop wrapping around you. when the dog walks correctly a few paces, release the cookie to him. once he understands a little whats going on, if he forges again i would again stop, give your butt a little tap and keep going. if the dog follows without wrapping up around you again follow it up with a reward (cookie/praise/play/etc). if once he understands that he shouldn't be wrapping around in front of you (you stop when he does it and he gets out of your way without prompt from you), then i would add in a correction if he continued to wrap. If you're using a choke chain, this could be just a quick pop.
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