Do I use treats for this?

[fuzzybunny]

Jazz is scheduled to take the CGC test on June 19th. The component that could possibly cause him to fail is the isolation/separation. I am actively training by tethering him in different places and leaving him so that I'm out of sight. Were up to about 1.5 minutes. My question is do I reward him with a treat when I return back to him? I've been using my marker word which is "yes" as I'm returning to him and giving him a treat, then repeating the process of leaving over again. Were doing this about 5 times a day. Am I doing this correctly, should I use a treat upon my return, and is 5 times a day enough?

We ran through a mock test in our prep course and the instructor said he would fail this part with his current behaviour because he whined in the beginning and pulled/lunged in the beginning to get to me. He calmed after about 30 seconds. We didn't use treats upon our return in class because the dogs were too interested in us and we were told to ignore them until they calmed down. His reaction upon my return in the past couple of days though has not been anxious which is why I've been using the treat in an attempt to reinforce a positive association with the whole process. Is that correct?

[Emoore]

Personally, I would not treat upon your return. With a dog that gets anxious like that, you want to avoid getting them wound up or excited; you want the leaving and returning to be as low-key as possible. If you treat when you return, it may cause him to get worked up and excited about your return.

[fuzzybunny]

Thanks Emoore, I'll start today without the treats and just ignore. Is practicing 5 times a day enough? I don't want to do too much and stress him but I want to make sure I do enough so that he'll pass.