Little to no drive in pup - Page 1

I have worked with many breeds and so am aware of the common issues however the majority of bull breeds i have experience with have had huge natural prey drives. The pup i have just taken on is 18 weeks now and can be quite nervous of new things especially when on walks at night. She is a rescue but still fairly young.

Training i hoped would not be to hard due to high drive in this breed generally as standard, however her drives are very low, she isnt interested in playing (chasing, tug nothing) she will engage for food but not get excited and hyped over it. 

Is there anything you would recommend to boost her drives other than praising when in higher than normal drive and waiting for her to mature.

She will on occasion chase (or walk fast i should say) half heartedly after a moving object but will then just sniff it and walk away.


thanks guys

you seem to have a good grasp of this dog. An uncertain dog will have other drives inhibited by their lack of confidence. Hopefully as she gets more of a bond with you she can exhibit her prey drive with more conviction. I would use hunger as a motivater for food and hope to see her also exhibit drive towards prey as she learns '' give to get'' behavior. 

Yeah i need to boost her confidence, she is very skittish at times but it is at the minute proving more difficult and time consuming than expected, dont get me wrong i knew it wouldnt be an easy pain free solution but the slightest thing sends her all the way back to the start . Boosting her confidence is proving very hard at the minute. As a result the drives arent showing through.

How long have you had her with you?
Perhaps you should not expect anything from her until she is ready and shows you she is ready by initiating a game of tug.
She sounds like she needs to get more comfortable in her own skin and surroundings before she can show interest in what to her is unimportant behavior. In other words, she is dealing with her priorities. I would not put any demands on her for now, let her adjust and mature a tad. Jmo

i have had her around one month, she is fixated on me but nothing else. Every now and again she will chase/walk fast after a ball/toy but you really have to try for a good 5-10 minutes engaging her by not letting her have it and showing that you want it bad before she will even do this. She is not really passionate about anything really. well not at the moment. 

What breed of dog and how old?
Fry