For Non Food Motivated Dogs What Do U Use In Training?

[Grace1979]

Hi i have just started basic training with grace and she is not food motivated at all. At the training most of the dogs follow the food around everywhere lol but grace just spits it out and its hard to get her full attention on me because there are so many dogs there. Is there any thing else you use to help with this?

[Mas1981]

Hi i have just started basic training with grace and she is not food motivated at all. At the training most of the dogs follow the food around everywhere lol but grace just spits it out and its hard to get her full attention on me because there are so many dogs there. Is there any thing else you use to help with this?

Some people use toys if their dogs love toys

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

i use a tug toy

Edited April 15, 2010 by Jaxx'sBuddy

[Staranais]

Toys, praise, games, life rewards (e.g., the door doesn't open until you have downed).

But I also don't teach new exercises around distractions such as other dogs. IMO teaching should be done at home (low distraction environment), and only then do you practice around distractions.

[Jigsaw]

Will she take food at home or is only at training she spits it out? Classes are highly distracting and a lot of dogs are very distracted, especially young dogs. You might want to try out different types of food too. If she doesn't take food at home either or have an interest in toys, you might need to sit back and think if she finds a tactile reward higher such as a pat, ear rub or back scratch or verbal praise. Just remember training classes are more for you to learn how to train your dog (at home) rather than training your dog in class.

[Grace1979]

thanks for your responses. Sometimes she does take food at home but other times she does want abar of it. I do find it easier teaching her at home at our own pace she just gets so excited seeing the other doggies at class she doesnt listen to me as well. I might try a toy and see if she responds to that.

[huski]

What kind of food are you using?

[Nic oh lah]

Also consider what food you're using - i posted on here at some stage that Sophie wasn't food motivated or toys motivated, lol. After meeting Huski and her seeing me try to treat Sophie and her saying "what the hell is that?!?!" to my liver treats, i've found that Sophie will learn to hover over water like a helicopter for Cabanossi or cheese -lol. And toys, not interested until she met an i-squeak. Now it's game on!

[Jetty]

What kind of food are you using?

At that training club they give us lamb vip treats. Just meat and vegies rolled into a ball really.

[Nic oh lah]

They give you the treats? Hmm. I would totally recommend trying cabanossi or roast chicken or something, you'll be amazed at the difference it'd make. If you stuffed a muesli bar into my mouth while another kid next to me had chocolate i'd spit it out too.

[Andisa]

They give you the treats? Hmm. I would totally recommend trying cabanossi or roast chicken or something, you'll be amazed at the difference it'd make. If you stuffed a muesli bar into my mouth while another kid next to me had chocolate i'd spit it out too.

love it..

I have a dog here who was returned - he HAD no desire for treats - nothing. He spat out everything - so had to think a bit harder...

TOYS really turned him on - so toys it was - tug games - he LOVES tug games..next step was feeding treats to the others and he watched how much they loved it and in the end he knew he was missing out.

So in a few weeks he went from not wanting treats and spitting everything out - to wanting treats and eating anything that was being offered - watching for the next bit.

Stinky foods work best.

Edited April 15, 2010 by Andisa

[Jetty]

They give you the treats? Hmm. I would totally recommend trying cabanossi or roast chicken or something, you'll be amazed at the difference it'd make. If you stuffed a muesli bar into my mouth while another kid next to me had chocolate i'd spit it out too.

The training club is done at VIP Pet Foods so I guess since they make the food they provide it.

Grace I would try the cheese too! The dogs love it.

[JulesP]

If the pup is in such a state that if will not eat or accept a pat or play with a toy then you need to work on that first. I've 3 pups at the moment that were in such a state that they couldn't do anything. I pretty much just have them sitting and watching and listening. After 3 weeks they are improving. 2 of the people are using the carob choc drops. None of the pups were interested in my lovely stinky food. Bit tricky to teach using a positive/luring method when you can't lure at all!

[Aidan]

Baked beef-heart seems to be the most universally potent food reward I've seen. In an ideal situation every dog would work for dry kibble so it's worth spending a bit of time working out what you need to do, maybe train the basics at home first, or skip a meal, or work apart from the group for a little bit.

[Misha]

My dog is toy driven. I was just testing if I can use food drive in training. The problem that I had was the food that she liked usually was messy ( except cheese). I found here on DOL happy paws treats. Now i need to hide them out of site otherwise she is going in drive just seeing the packet.

[corvus]

How do you bake beef heart? Always looking for freaking delicious things for recall treats. Makes a big difference.

[SkySoaringMagpie]

Do you feed her before her classes?

[Prydenjoy]

I had a similar problem with Mango when she was younger, then I discovered roast pork. She'll work her little bum off for roast pork no matter what the distraction was! She's very tug toy motivated, a drive that I recommend you build in your pup because it makes training down the track a little easier as you will have more options for reinforcers. When she was younger she would take 5 minutes to sort of learn a new trick with food reward, but pull out the tug and she'd learn a trick in about 45 seconds, it's like there was a secret "switch". Now she's a little older (5 months old) she'll work hard for food or tug toys, you might find the same with your pup - Some pups take a while to get going, bear with them though because it is worth the wait (and persistence, don't give up!).

[Grace1979]

Great responses!!! Im going to buy some roast chicken today and try the cheese and see if they help, Nicgsdlover if that fails i will try the cabanossi.

I dont feed her before training.

JJ she hates the vip chunkers she was spitting them out all over the place!

[Grace1979]

I FOUND SOMETHING SHE LOVES!!!!! i went and tried the cheese and she nearly bit my hand off lol she was so focased and even followed everywhere my hand moved. Thanks so much for your suggestions!