Hi nedim -
I'm just going to talk some general dog stuff here. Some will be appropriate to you and some might not.
Dogs, like people, work for certain motivations. A dog that is food motivated is wonderful to work with because the "pay-off" is easy. Use of treats is a very effective way to motivate a dog.
But dogs also learn what we teach them, and if we teach them that the treat will be visible to them then they're going to take that as part of the cue. If we look at it in a human way - let's say someone came to you, held out a five dollar bill and said "spin around!" and when you did the spin they handed you the money. And then they did it again - held out the $5, told you to spin, you did the spin and they handed the money. Let's say you did this five times.
Then they come back to you but don't hold out a five - they just say "spin around". What are you going to do? I'd be willing to bet you'd say "well, where's the $5??" before you'd be willing to spin. This is completely normal and it's the person holding the money who taught you to expect the money to be visible before you spin. It's not YOUR fault you think that way.
Now, back to the dogs. When it comes to treat training, there are a lot of people out there who say "well, it doesn't work! my dogs won't do anything unless they SEE the treat!". My response to that is "you taught them to expect to see the treat". It's not the dog's fault, it's a training flaw on the part of the trainer.
So how do we work around this? Well, first of all, luring a behavior with a treat is not teaching the dog the behavior. It's merely getting them to do the physical motions of the behavior but the conscious thought of what they're doing is just not there because they're focused on the food and not on the behavior. I don't consider that a dog has actually learned a behavior until they can do it correctly several times in a row, with a single command for each time and no visible treats, lures or enticements of any kind. If a dog is still following a lure, they haven't learned the behavior at all.
Luring is an excellent beginning tool. But it has to be used very sparingly. If I'm going to teach my dog a down from a sit, I'll use a treat the first couple of times just to get the muscles moving in the right way. I'll put the treat at the dog's nose, slowly lower it to the ground and slightly away from the dog, then praise and give the treat when the dog's belly hits the ground.
But after just a few times, I know I have to stop using the lure or the dog will just think that the lure is part of the cue and it won't actually learn the behavior. So, since I've been applying a hand signal, I put the food up on a table or in a pocket and I do the same gesture (hand in front of the dog, moving down and forward) without the food in it. I may hold my hand in such a way that it APPEARS the food is there, but the food is not in my hand.
When the dog follows that, I immediately praise when the belly hits the floor and I reach for a piece of food to give to the dog. IF the dog gets up when I reach for the food, that's fine! What I wanted was the behavior of laying down (which happened) and I praised when that happened, so the food can come a few seconds later without a problem.
At this time I haven't used the "down" command at all - just following my hand signal. I continue to do it this way, hand signal but no food in my hand, until the dog is consistently laying down with the signal and it's become a very smooth movement. I usually find that the dog starts anticipating the down command a bit and I can back off of the hand signal (maybe just start the downward motion and not have to go clear down to the floor and forward like I did at first). Keep in mind this can take days or even weeks. Speed is not important - we have a lifetime with our dogs - what's important is that the dog is understanding what you want.
Now, once the behavior is consistent on a simple hand signal with no food in the hand, I start adding in the "down" command. I say "down" and give the signal and then I praise and reward when the dog lays down. After a bit the dog starts to anticipate the behavior on the word and I can start to fade the hand signal. At this point I usually say the word and then wait a second before giving the signal to let the dog think about what I want. When the dog starts going down on the verbal, I usually up the praise and reward (jackpot a bit) so that they realize this was something really great.
Patience is a huge asset in training dogs. Just like us humans, dogs need an opportunity to think about things at times. If a dog is in a learning stage, and you give a command and the dog looks at you as if to say "hmm, don't have a clue what you mean!" then it's a good time to stand there quietly and wait to see if your dog can figure it out. There will be times when the answer isn't immediate - just like for us! I've been through a lot of schooling over the years (BA, EMT-II, Vet Tech certification) and I've taken a LOT of tests along the way. And there were times I looked at a question and thought "oh hell, I know this but I can't think of it!". And after a minute or so it came to me. Dogs do the same thing at times. They will go blank and it's not something they are doing on purpose nor is it something they should be punished for. At the very most, they just don't earn the reward.
I love using rewards for my dogs. It makes them into very eager participants in the activities we do. Our dogs tend to be limited by what we can manage to explain to them - but given enough time and patience, most dogs can learn a large variety of behaviors without too much trouble.
Enjoy your training!
Melanie and the gang in Alaska