Dima Yeremenko (of the Good Boy Dog School, UK)  shows you what he works on in the first few days of a new puppy in the  new home. Handfeeding produces a dog that - right from the beginning -  wants to be good, be rewarded and have as much interaction as possible  with the family!

Another dog, same process. Here, Lola, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling  Retriever, is put through her paces during her Day 5 Handfeeding session  at home, this time around other dogs. Note her attitude, focus,  attention span and repertoire - this dog has a long career ahead of her!

Dima has many more examples of "afterwards":
A "crazy" Jack Russell
Dima at Crufts 2012
and a nervous Border Colli

From the Good Boy Dog School UK, run by the Russian dog trainer, Dima Yeremenko, MSc.

Nonsense! Wait until then, and you'll have double the work untraining  behaviours you don't want PLUS training the behaviours you do want! The  truth is that your dog is starting to learn from you the moment s/he  arrives in your home. It's up to you to decide WHAT the puppy learns!

This myth probably originated in the days when "old school" training  methods with heavy collar corrections were used and the young dogs  needed to be old enough to withstand the abuse.

Luckily, we don't do that any more! 

Older dogs are not the problem... however, older OWNERS are quite difficult to (re)train... but we try!

In fact, some would say (me, for instance!) that training an older  dog is easier than training a puppy. Older dogs are generally calmer  than young puppies and so have better focus and attention.

Duke turned up and "adopted" us when he was about six years old. You can see the results here. 

"Bribery" is a human term and implies something illegal (as we  know from politics)! Actually, food is a "marker" - it's a signal  something has been done correctly. In humans this could be an A+ from a  teacher, or a paycheck or bonus from your job! We all "work” for  reinforcements and dogs are no different.

We usually use food because most dogs love food, but it can be  ANYTHING your dog loves - toys, play, work, petting, happy talk etc. 

When we start reward-based training, our dogs are on a CONTINUOUS reward  system. The dog is rewarded every time it performs something correctly -  or even just for TRYING! Rubini, one of our trainers, calls it being an  ATM - an Automatic Treat Machine!

Once the dog has more or less got it, we move quickly onto VARIABLE and  RANDOM reward system. This is similar to a Genting slot-machine - you  know you won't win every time or how much, but next time...  

There is no reason to completely STOP using food in training.  Once the trainer has learnt the difference between simply "luring" the  dog and "rewarding" the dog... we hope you will keep your dog on a  random reinforcement schedule for the rest of its life!

A very good site for more training tips is Leerburg with hundreds of videos, courses, books, etc. Check them out. Link below:

We've had dogs around us for at least 10,000 years. We've had today's  commercial dog food for about 70 years. So for 9,930 years, we've been  feeding our dogs... what exactly? 

How We Dogs Started Eating Kibble: The Strange History of Commercial Dog Food
And articles by Dr Becker, a US vet, are worth reading!