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You have a lot of misconceptions about treat training.
I agree completely with what Sass said above. Also wanted to add:
Using positive training doesn't mean you always use treats. The reward can literally be anything your dog finds rewarding- tug, petting, ball, chasing, etc. Treats are a very very common reward because most dogs find them valuable and it's also a pretty easy one to utilize (vs like... chasing a squirrel being your reward. Even though it's easily a higher value thing for many dogs, it's hard to use on cue).
The dog doesn't need the treat to perform. The treat is used in the learning process to give the behavior worth to the dog.
Example: I've done some agility with my dogs. My older dog now trials which means she has to perform the whole thing of 17+ obstacles without any reward. And preferably she does so at a fast speed (well little old dog fast in our case but she tries!) She has no toy drive at all so all her agility is trained via treats. And yet I can count on her to do all 17+ things I ask her to, while running at speed, and while paying attention to my body language without a reward in sight.
You build up the behavior. You can't expect the dog to just right away go out and do all 17+ things from the get go. You build the game until the dog loves the game for the game itself.
Pretty well any positive trainign works the same way. Start small and with the dog under threshold and then work your way up. Build a behavior from the ground up, etc. I don't personally use exclusively postive methods but strive to. I want my relationship with my dogs to be a good working relationship with trust and respect as the basis. Limitations do come into play sometimes and I accept that not every situation can be trained as ideally as I'd like. But the basis of that kind of training works and works well.
I agree completely with what Sass said above. Also wanted to add:
Using positive training doesn't mean you always use treats. The reward can literally be anything your dog finds rewarding- tug, petting, ball, chasing, etc. Treats are a very very common reward because most dogs find them valuable and it's also a pretty easy one to utilize (vs like... chasing a squirrel being your reward. Even though it's easily a higher value thing for many dogs, it's hard to use on cue).
The dog doesn't need the treat to perform. The treat is used in the learning process to give the behavior worth to the dog.
Example: I've done some agility with my dogs. My older dog now trials which means she has to perform the whole thing of 17+ obstacles without any reward. And preferably she does so at a fast speed (well little old dog fast in our case but she tries!) She has no toy drive at all so all her agility is trained via treats. And yet I can count on her to do all 17+ things I ask her to, while running at speed, and while paying attention to my body language without a reward in sight.
You build up the behavior. You can't expect the dog to just right away go out and do all 17+ things from the get go. You build the game until the dog loves the game for the game itself.
Pretty well any positive trainign works the same way. Start small and with the dog under threshold and then work your way up. Build a behavior from the ground up, etc. I don't personally use exclusively postive methods but strive to. I want my relationship with my dogs to be a good working relationship with trust and respect as the basis. Limitations do come into play sometimes and I accept that not every situation can be trained as ideally as I'd like. But the basis of that kind of training works and works well.
