Throwing treats on the floor

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

I just read an interesting article about throwing treats on the floor, rather than hand feeding, in conjunction with clicker training. The gist of the article was that in humans the physical act of smiling actually elevates mood slightly. In dogs the physical act of sniffing around for a treat helps create a calmer mood. So if you are clicker training to alleviate over excited behavior, like barking and running around like a dog on speed when the mailman shows up - you can start interrupting the behavior by click throw a treat on the floor, click treat on floor and backup to the desired behavior slowly over time. Waiting around for the even an instant of the desired ( calm) behavior would be useless, so jumpstart the desired behavior by sniffing for food. I am going to try it. Has anyone else heard of this?

[Adina P]

That's how I prefer to do it...only recently learned of the potential 'calming' effect, but even without that it makes for more easily determining whether the dog 'gets it' or not (Has to return and repeat the behavior after eating the treat). For stationary behaviors gets the dog up and moving between behaviors...again showing you that the dog knows what you're after if he returns and repeats the behavior. Whereas if the dog sits and you treat from your hand...how is he to try sitting again if he's already sitting?