markfsanderson

From what I've read, only humans and dogs (not wolfs, pigs, dolphins or great apes!) are the only creature born with an innate understanding of what 'pointing' means. Using your arms, a dog understands that it can point in the direction of something interesting. To take advantage of that skill, try pointing at your mouth (with the treat on it) before doing a specific exercise.
To train you dog to catch a treat, make the treat that they are to catch the highest value treat you have. For instance, if your dog likes hot dogs, so so for biscuits but is nutso for freeze dried liver - use the latter. Then make a rule that the ONLY way that s/he gets that treat is if they catch it. You must start small, from the top of the dogs head, etc and drop it. If it falls on the floor - get it first! No catch - no treat! Make sure they get a good sniff of what they might be missing before the exercise starts. This will work in most circumstances for even the most stubborn.
Oh - yes an alternative to the yucky-treat-in-the-mouth routine is to fabricate an arm band that has a short piece of dull plastic (not metal) protruding from the arm band. Put the armband on the left side (for obedience - or two for non-obedience) and push a treat onto the protruding plastic piece. Leather working aficionados will find this the easiest . . . or have friend do it for you? Make sure you point at the treat before/during/after an exercise and pop the treat off the holder when on the ground close to your left side when its reward time. Or just pull it off and hand it to them . . . mix it up! I haven't found any for sale, and a lady that I knew in Austin trained her dobermans this way. Very cool stuff - and no yucky treats!

Mark, Jamie and The Poodle Gangsters