THE CORRECT USE OF REWARDS WILL HELP REINFORCE AND MOTIVATE YOUR DOG.
Unless you are teaching a new exercise to your dog, keep all food and/or toys hidden. Be careful that you do not “advertise” any reward or game to your dog. Your dog will appreciate the reward much more if it comes as an absolute surprise.
TIP – When using food/toy rewards, if your dog SEES it, then that is what he is thinking about! When using food or toys as a reward, keep it out of sight until the second you whip it out to reward.
This is the reason I keep food rewards in different places in my living room but not on me, usually. I put the food out when my Sheltie is in her ex-pen or outside, not watching me or goodbye to any surprise element. Also, I generally won’t let her see me put treats in my pockets. I might have treats readily available for stuff I am really working on like fronts and finishes alone, working on getting a complete swing finish to the left, and getting the heeling for free heel and figure eight going better whether I have treats or not. I might use the meal (kibble) itself to train or retrain something that popped up as an issue in the last trial, or a long-term issue like my Sheltie doing a slow down for signals.