"Treat training versus Koehler training" By Loretta

I don’t carry treats when I walk/run my dogs – and I walk or run all 5 dogs every day! During my walk/run with my dogs, almost all of the basic obedience commands are used each time. Although all 5 of my dogs are extremely treat motivated, they don’t need treats to follow basic commands. Even though Pippin and Madi have not gone through KMODT, the expectation for them is the same – you can do what is asked without treats. It’ll get easier once I get them trained. (Truth is I did try Clicker Training with Pippin – but I did it with pets instead of treats. He knows the hand signals for sit and down entirely through Clicker Training.)

When we adopted our first dog, Latte, the rescue group recommended a training facility close to our home. The training included the use of treats to teach recall, sit/stay, down/stay, and place commands. And lo and behold, their motto, was that of Koehler's "Reliability off lead should always be the most significant criterion when evaluating and comparing training methods." But they used TREATS!

Latte and I diligently attended class twice a week (20 – 40 minutes of class each time) and practiced everything at home as well. For 16 weeks I did this day in day out. What do I have to show for it after all of my effort and hard work? A somewhat solid recall in real life situations is all. So, after 16 weeks of treat training and learning basic obedience, my Latte couldn’t do a sit/stay, down/stay, or Place with treats or without treats! She just did her own thing whenever she wanted. Bottom line, the basic obedience training with treats was for naught. I was frustrated. Then, the trainers suggested a prong collar for her because about 10 weeks in, she started showing some fear aggression – lunging or growling at other dogs. This eventually translated to some people too. Now, when we first adopted her, she was the sweetest dog ever that would never do anything like this at all!

With our second and third adopted dogs, we trained at a different facility. The trainers used Koehler Method of Dog Training BUT they combined it with treats! So, it was really a pseudo KMODT. We didn’t continue with these trainers because of other issues. But by now, 8 months into being dog owners, I knew more about dog training and read up about Koehler and even purchased the book. But for the life of me, I was not sure how to do the KMODT on my own because the Basic Obedience Koehler book does not break it down into smaller parts like Roxanne’s Foundations course does. After a quick search on the web, I came across Tony Ancheta’s KMODT website and saw Roxanne’s name and got very excited when I saw that she was in Columbia! That’s only about 20-30 minutes away from our house. I emailed Roxanne immediately and the rest is history.

I was excited to train my dog, Lea using KMODT and doing it the right way, i.e. no treats involved. I was able to get Lea to do things in 6 weeks, what she was not able to do in 2 months of training with treats. I got so excited about this that I talked my son into taking the Foundations Course with our dog, Latte too. We saw very similar results, now Latte can do a Sit/Stay and Down/Stay. No expectations of any treats. Both Lea and Latte are mutts, found on the streets and dumpster in Kuwait. So, the fact that these dogs (somewhat feral) could comprehend and knew what to do using the Koehler way was actually very exciting for me as a dog owner. It was a testament to the training method. It works. Treats not needed! But the owner/handler must understand and believe in the method. And success doesn’t happen overnight but through sheer hard work and continued use of the Koehler way daily at every opportunity lest these pups forget! (I love seeing my Lea and Latte making good choices when we are on our walks.)

 

(Full Disclosure: Latte and Lea are also into nose work and we do use treats to train and as a reward for alerting scent BUT they never know that the treat is coming from me. The treat is thrown onto their head from the back (so they can’t see) when they give a formal alert on the required scent. During trials, when they alert, I give them pets and make a big deal of it.)