To treat or not treat?

I've been using treats to train dogs for 25 years.  I always use the word "good" when I give a dog a treat when I'm training a new behavior.  In fact, when I get a new dog I associate the word good with treats.  This will condition the dog to respond to the word "good" even when I don't give a treat.  A dog that has been properly conditioned will continue to offer the trained behavior without a treat or with only intermittent reward.  Some dogs aren't food motivated.  Anything that the dog loves is a reward but I've found food to be the strongest motivator for my dogs and for most of the dogs I've known through training.

There's no need to always give treats once a dog has been taught a behavior once that behavior has become consistent.  In fact, once a dog understands a command, varying the rate of reward becomes important.  There are a lot of good articles on the net about reward based training.  Look for Sophia Yin, Patricia McConnell, Jean Donaldson and Pat Millar to name a few.

Dogs do what works.  If sitting gets them a treat, they quickly learn to sit.  They also can be taught to sit faster, straighter or for longer periods of time by gradually increasing the criteria.  This is where varying the rate of reward comes in. 

Here's an interesting article I came across the other day.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201307/do-dogs-learn-faster-food-other-types-rewards

I agree with JackieG.  Good lure reward training, sets up the dog for the behavior.  Once the dog is 80% on trials of 10,( 8 out of 10 times), the dog should be put on a variable reinforcement schedule.  Once that is done the dog behavior will skyrocket.  The dog thinking this time the treat is coming.  It's the same principle used in slot machines.  The quicker a dog is taken off of treats the better, however, they are a very important tool in getting a dog to preform a new behavior, whether shaping, chaining, or using classical or operant conditioning.  Rewards can also be toys or what I call life rewards, walks swimming, car rides, playing tug of war etc.  All of those people JackieG mentioned are world renowned they have credentials, experience and knowledge that will blow your mind.  Dr. Sophia Yin has a Learn to Earn Program that I love to use with any new client.  Here is the link:  http://drsophiayin.com/blog/entry/the-learn-to-earn-program-implementing-the-program