Quote:
Originally Posted by 2ndchance
I don't really have a problem with not using treats for training. Working with horses using treats can cause more problems then it is worth and I know of some people who have paid the price by losing a finger. There are probably dogs out there that can develop the tendancy to bite looking for treats.
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Using food reinforcement with horses is an excellent method to train horses, or lions, dogs, bears, birds..etc. Goes back to the idea of incompetent people blaming the technique for their own shortcomings. The first thing when using food, is getting respectful behavior around food and then training the animal the safe way to take food. The behavior you describe (looking for food) is called sign tracking and it is a by product of poor training protocols.