I'd love to be able to train with a toy as opposed to food, with food training you always have the possibility of over-feeding them, or with Dan giving him too much of one thing which sets off his colitis! Both my dogs are 100% food motivated and sometimes Dan won't work if he doesn't see my "treat bag"! Occasionally I use the bag itself for teaching them to "go on" for agility (keep running forward until the next command is given) but I gave up with Dan on that as he needs to be close to me!
All the dogs at our agility club are trained with toys (food is used occasionally, just to save their fingers or for targetting. I've always wondered how to train a dog who is neither food or toy motivated (not that I have one!).
Jo