Working for food

There is a top obedience competitor that teaches to use your dog's food for competition training. We always have advocated making your dog work for his food in some way, but I often forget to save it for formal training time. If you have a dog that loves his/her dinner, it's a great way to get more animation and enthusiasm, especially for heeling work. This morning I prepared Noel's food as usual, then took her out to the training room. I set her bowl of food on the table, which she saw, and then did two long heeling patterns, one on lead, one off. Her attitude and precision was wonderful, even better than when I use her favorite tug toy or hotdogs. We've done this in the past many times and always get the same enthusiastic and intense work. I am sold on this and am going to practice this on a more regular basis as we're preparing for the Novice ring.