There is nothing worse than trying to do right by your dog and making them overweight because of training. You can also actually make things worse by using treats.  In today's episode, I want to show you exactly what it means to be rewarding too long and what happens when you take the treats out of your hand. AND how to fix when your dog only listens when you have treats. All of that and more in the Acknowledge Dogs Podcast. Get started with training at https://www.matadork9.com/coaching Free Training Guide on Resolving Bad Habits https://www.matadork9.com/resolvingbadhabits   00;00;01;08 - 00;00;35;15Michael J. AccettaWelcome. My name is Michael, etc.. I'm the founder of Matador Canine Brilliance and author of The Dog Training Cheat Codes You're listening to the Acknowledge Dogs Podcast Drop the treats. Get rid of them. Get rid of all rewards. All treats. Get them out of the training picture. Get out of that mindset. Why would I say that? I'm a professional dog trainer who uses positive reinforcement daily. 00;00;36;02 - 00;00;56;14Michael J. AccettaWhy would I tell you to get rid of the treats I'm your host. Michael is author of The Dog Training. She Codes. Host of the Acknowledged Dogs podcast and founder of Matador Canine Brilliance. Today we're talking about what happens when you hoard treats, you hold them in your hand. Your dog starts to learn where the treats coming from, when the treats are there, when they're not there. 00;00;56;14 - 00;01;14;27Michael J. AccettaWe're going to guide a little bit more into it. But did you know that you can actually train your dog through positive reinforcement and still end some behaviors? You don't have to punish them. And to help you out I wrote a free PDF guide called Resolving Complicated Bad Habits Without Using Punishment. The link is in the description. You can download that. 00;01;14;29 - 00;01;38;02Michael J. AccettaAbsolutely free. It's a nice short read, but it is packed with useful information, so make sure you take advantage of that. I have seen way too many times over the thousands of dogs that I've trained over the thousands of dogs I've trained away to many times where the owner has practiced for weeks. You're getting so much success. And then we take the treats away, or they don't have treats or they don't have the ball, whatever it is. 00;01;38;12 - 00;02;01;27Michael J. AccettaAnd the dog completely forgets what they should be doing. This happens way too much, and you've just wasted weeks of time that you've worked with your dog. Simply because they now know what the difference is between working and not working. So why does this happen? Why are dogs so smart Well, we don't want them to be. And they play dumb when we want them to be smart, and you're trying to teach about them. 00;02;02;09 - 00;02;29;08Michael J. AccettaAnd they're like, Nope, I'm just going to keep taking my treats. But of course, they can be really smart and they are very smart, so they pick up on these things. What happens is dogs learn what's called stimulus control. So people refer to it as generalization, becoming really specific. I like to label it under stimulus control. Stimulus control is when a behavior happens, when it's supposed to happen doesn't happen. 00;02;29;08 - 00;02;50;09Michael J. AccettaWhen it's not supposed to happen, it happens in response to a particular cue. Right. If I say sit, my dog will sit in. Does not happen when a different cue is presented. So I say downward dog wouldn't sit. Also, the behavior set wouldn't happen when I said the word down. So there's kind of four criteria there that lock in that stimulus control. 00;02;50;09 - 00;03;10;17Michael J. AccettaNow, the same thing goes for when our dogs are training just in general. Okay. We're going to train when I have the trip back, John. We're not training when I don't have the trip pouch. I'll see how very quickly our dogs can learn what the difference is right when a treat pouches on when my han