While I do not use much food when I train a dog, I do use food to condition a response to the word “sit”. I do this for a specific reason, to be able to disrupt a dog’s prey drive when all other commands fail.
A dog quickly learns that if I have a piece of food in my hand, the dog will not get the treat until he or she sits calmly facing me.
In order to look up, a dog has to sit down. So if I show the dog a treat and then lift my closed hand, the dog will sit down to see the hand holding the food. I am very careful not to say “sit” as I raise my hand. If I say “sit” as I raise my hand, the food becomes a bribe. You sit down and I will give you food.
But when the dog sits I give it the food as I say “good sit.” What I am doing is programing a Pavlovian response to the word. The dog associates the word sit with the pleasure of the food. He also associates the act of sitting with pleasure.
After a couple or repetitions, the dog will sit when I raise a closed hand over his head. Now I do not always have a treat in my hand, and the dog has a good enough nose to know whether or not I have food. But hope springs eternal in a dog. The dog sits for me since he knows the only way to find out for sure if I have food, is to sit still.
In my group classes, called Neighborhood Pack, I can stop almost any behavior just by walking over to the dog and holding my hand over his head with the fingers close. The dog stops the unacceptable behavior to find out if I have food to offer.
This then becomes useful when my clients are out with their dogs. The word sit can often change behavior, especially behavior in prey drive, when all other commands fail.
A dog may go into prey drive when it either feels threatened or sees prey. Prey drive is a part of the fight or flight response. When you dog goes after a rabbit, a deer, or another dog, it is in prey drive. And prey drive actually causes bio chemical and physiological changes. The dog’s eyesight, sense of smell and even hearing narrow on just the object of the prey drive.
When all else fails we give the command “sit” and the Pavlovian response to that word is often enough to get the dog out of prey drive and back under control.
You can practice and reinforce this command every day. When you feed the dog, raise its dish. When it sits tell him “good sit” and then put the dish down.
