My dog Jasper came to us trained with a "yes" marker. After some brief reading on this forum I see that it is recommended to consistently follow a marker with a treat. What about if we are just hanging out and he is doing really well? He's a new addition so I want to be able to reinforce when he is relaxing, in his bed, not chasing the cat, etc. Is an enthusiastic "good boy" and general praise enough? Do I need to stash treats in every room of my house (not sure my wife would be on board)? Do I give a yes and then get up and get a treat? What do you do? Thanks!!
If you are using "yes" as an event marker, then, yes, it needs to be followed with a reward each and every time you use it, in the same way you would a clicker. Otherwise it loses its meaning ("That thing you did right there was a behaviour you're going to get paid for"). It is really a good idea to have a pot of treats in each room so your dog doesn't know where it's coming from - that means that he'll learn to give behaviours you like whether or not he knows the treats are around in advance. Once you give your event marker, you have a couple of seconds in which to deliver the treat, so make sure they're to hand. I tend to have small treats in most of my pockets most of the time so I can just walk past my dogs and reward calm without it being a big demonstration of getting the treats.
Sometimes I just say good boy and give him a kiss and a bit of fuss. He seems happy enough with that if he's just chilling or for general behaviour With recall and when we're out on walks I always carry treats
