[bendyfoot]

Originally Posted by luckypenny

Treat doesn't necessarily = food, you're correct. The quickest/easiest way is to use whatever reward motivates a dog most.

P-L...sounds to me like you have a smart, eager, puppy who's willing to learn and respond. It doesn't sound like you have any food aggression/guarding issues at all, so I wouldn't be concerned about it one bit. Your main goal now will be to work together with the pup to develop a good relationship where a "treat" is not expected every time a command is performed.

I personally like ME to be the best reward and work towards that. My dogs work to make me happy, and it pleases them to please me. The DO get treats, but usually just for being cute or for doing silly tricks like "sitting pretty"...it's just fun stuff, not important command work. We do all our OB training with only verbal/touch praise/reward once the dog has learned the desired behaviour and understands the command.