One of the main things is that I need to use the highest reinforcer I can find (I KNEW that, but wasn't doing it and she really drove that home in the seminar), and use it ONLY for the reactivity work. I knew this to an extent as well, but didn't realize how important it is.
So today I bought as much stuff as I could think of to try and build a reinforcement ladder to figure out what would be used for the reactivity work. Believe me, Frodo had a FUN night!
And the winner is... Kong Peanut Butter filler squeeze stuff. Yum. Second in line was TOTW wet food, which I have been using for shaping, which I plan on continuing to do. I realize the Kong stuff might not be the most healthy, but I figure I am willing to use it anyway if it will help him to become less reactive. Other than that, he really only eats TOTW kibble, TOTW wet food, Dogswell Lamb and Rice treats, and Natural Balance roll on occasion. Oh, and soon Primal raw formulas. I don't think that is too shabby...
Could you explain what you mean by "backward conditioning"? Do you mean creating a situation in which the treat predicts a trigger?
Basically what she was saying in the seminar is that if you see a dog and start feeding treats before the dog sees the other dog, that your dog is not going to learn that the food is predicting the trigger.