dasha

When I had to teach my dog to stand I had to hold the food right in front of his nose and say Stand to him. He would lick the food at first and then when he got frustrated he would stand and then the food would be released. To give him the idea to stand, I would hold the food there for him (with my right hand) and if he did nothing I would just reach down with my left hand (behind his line of sight) and just niggle him under his left flank (just enough that it bothered him) and he would stand to get away from my finger and as soon as his butt came up the food was released for him to eat. It took a while but he did get it. He didn't like my hands going near him as he was a bit handshy too and as I always used my right hand to feed him, his command ended up just being me moving my right hand across in his direction with my palm open and it wasn't so strong for him. Good luck!!

You have also described my Border Collie to a tee. I tried to train mine for obedience as well and it was hard I will tell you. Mine doesn't have good food drive either but I found that he didn't mind Cabanossi. He preferred to hear the words good boy and get a pat for his reward as well. You need to find a time that he is in a joyful mood like when he first sees you in the morning and when ever he is excited and jolly you need to make a fuss of him. Find a game that he likes or something that you do that makes him happy. I used to tease him with the food or toy and he only got it if he tried to get it enthusiastically (like snapping for it) or holding in it in your closed palm and not letting him get it until he pawed at it or did more than licking. But the whole time I had to pretend that I was trying to stop him and laugh and stuff and try to push him (gently) away and when he persisted he got it. It was like I had to trick him into wanting the food. He now had food drive (not great but he will now work for food) It will work but it is hard work to do. It is very hard to motivate a dog that isn't interested. It is important that you don't correct him in his training. I found that as mine had low drive he was also very sensitive to me. If I sighed after trying working on something he would just freeze and lose interest totally. So you need to reward him for the effort not the result. I also found mine improved by teaching him little tricks that didn't involve hard work. Like paw, and simple stuff like play dead. He is also lazy so to him heeling for 10 metres wasn't worth the effort for a piece of food. So by building his confidence with little things I could get him to heel from the sit for 1 step and if he stepped of in a spritely manner he got a good boy and some food. You need to make him think that the game is trying to get the food from you not doing a task. Once he gets the hang of taking foor you start asking for more before the opportunity yo take the food presents itself. I hope thi isn't to scattered for you but it is hard to describe what you do sometimes.

Hi K9, Hi just have a Question re TOT. I am keen to start one of my dogs on this ASAP as I think I need to re-establish the pecking order between us as she has become increasingly arrogant and selectively hearing me as well as starting fights between the other female dog. She also guards and food from the other dogs quite badly. My problem here is that I have already conditioned her with "yes" as a bridge/release for reward word since she was a pup. She was taught that "yes" indicated the behaviour is over and she could end it. So is "yes" still the word to use when she looks at me but now she just needs to wait for OK til she can go, or do I need to use another word to mark the look such as "good" so I don't confuse her. She does have very high food and prey drive so I am sure she will learn pretty fast either way. Also in your TOT post you mentioned about the dog circling its food to watch you, is this a good thing or bad. Are you saying that if the dog circles looking at me, that she considers me as alpha? And if that is the case, if she is circling watching another dog, does she consider that dog as alpha and to heck with me! I am just curious as she is fighting alot between with another bitch and am trying to sort this out before they do much more damage to each other. Sorry for having so many questions,when I am so new to DOL, Dasha