If any of you were training a new adult dog for obedience (the BH)...and say you got this dog a less than a week ago. The dog works very well (trained by former owner) for food. But the new trainer refuses to use food as he thinks the dog works well without it. Do you think that this new person should continue what works with this dog, as it is still in a bonding period? When I mentioned that I thought some food motivation would be good....(as this dog is not bonded to this person and praise is meaningless at this point in my opinion)...i was told that food is not necessary since the dog is doing well. But i think her obedience is going to crash at some point with no food or toy reinforcement, then they'll have to go back and redo steps that they could have avoided. Someone else piped in that food or toys shouldn't be used if not needed and that it's only for finishing up a dog. I disagree. I believe you start a dog with something motivational (that it really likes, in this case, this dog loves FOOD.) and you wean the dog off it with time. Am I wrong?

Common sense tells me that the food rewards should continue. I am no expert by any means, but it seems that this dog already has to adjust to a new owner. Why should it have it's obedience routines/rewards disrupted at this critical time? Food is a great motivator.

In this situation I would stick with food, but give treats for all kinds of things, not only when actually working on obedience but around the house and just for fun. And, don't use food as a substitute for praise, use it in addition to lots of praise.

I would use both but in a progression of how hard the command will be. In other words save the best(favorite food) for the hardest command. For instance recall when there is distractions. I start with food but as soon as possible I try to wean off. On my dog when she smells food there are some days when she is over the top and her concentration is gone.

Milt

The DOG decides what is a reward and what isn't. If the dog values the praise of it's new handler so little that the praise will not strengthen the behavior, then the praise is NOT a reward. Intermittent reinforcement (with whatever reward the dog values) is not something you ever wean off of. You can increase the ratio or interval between rewards, but the use of the IR throughout the dog's career is what keeps it performing at a high level. I, for one, would not work too hard at my job for just a pat on the back - I want to see that paycheck at the end of the week. Some dogs value praise enough to work tremendously hard for it, but an awful lot do not; they need a stronger incentive to perform to their maximum potential.