Any Help would be Appreciated - Page 1

I am having a very hard time in training one of my pups. She does not have any food drive or toy drive, and I can not for the life of me get her attention when she is on leash. How do you train a dog in obedience when they are not food or toy motivated?

Any help would be appreciated!!!

Thanks

Kel

it is very difficult to train a pup with low food/toy drive.  What are you hoping to train her for?  If it's just pet obedience, use collar corrections and praise - old-fashioned but it still works fine.  If you are hoping to do Schutzhund or competitive "anything" with her, try to build her drives up - if you can't, then I suggest placing her in a great pet home and getting another pup more suitable for working.

molly

Kelly what kind of foods are you using? Have you tried liver fried or liver cookies?

She has drive for possible schutzhund work. I would like to take her to shows and maybe schutzhund. I have tried praise, food, toy's and it doesn't work. I really don't like to do a lot of collar corrections because she is sensitive on correction(sometimes, not all the time). She is a very nice female(pick of the litter)and I really don't want to just give up on her because I can't get her attention, that's why I'm asking for any help on how to train a puppy when they are not food/toy motivated. She is very high in energy, so she has me baffled!!!

I have tried hot dog(of course), satin balls(that she loves to eat from her bowl),chicken. It's like she takes a nibble and then she's bored with it. She's just strange!!!! She does get bored very easily. I have not tried fried liver, or liver cookies yet. I thought the satin balls would do the trick, but apparently not.

If she is not food or toy motivated, then she doesn't have drive for possible Schutzhund work.  Drive = interest in food and toys, for training purposes this is necessary for motivation, unless you want to use the leash-jerk method (force) which is usually not successful for Schutzhund-style training, only for pet training.  Sounds to me like you need to spend your time and energy on a pup with better drives for the work, if you want to do Schutzhund or any competitive obedience training.  HIgh energy is not the same as high drive.

molly

Kelly,

I don't know if you're going to follow along with this, however you can try not feeding your female for a couple of days and when it comes to training, you can give her the hotdogs.. if she has an interest.. thats great, if not. don't feed her until she does.

For them expert trainers out there.. please correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh and Kelly.. My male, Jake use to be a major finicky eater. I would go as far as sweet talking Jake to get him to eat his food, I even bought turkey gravy to get him to eat. One day, I got so fed up with this crap that I intentionally not fed Jake for 2 days straight, The 3rd day.. He respected his meal and ate without me doing all of these crazy stuffs to him.

Brittany, I don't think that is good advise considering we are talking about a puppy.  Maybe try training before breakfast, but if she is still not interested in food reward I would not withhold food from a growing puppy.  Kelly, how old is the puppy?  How long have you had her?  If she is very young still and has not had too much time to adjust to her surroundings she may just need to settle in a while. 

She does go after anything that moves. I have tested her and she goes right after the tug(off leash), but when the leash is on her she has no motivation for any food or toy for obedience work. She's like another dog, and it's like once that leash is her her it seems her spirit is broken or something, I just don't know!!! Her mother had no motivation for the food or toy when training, but I was always able to get her attention on me. Her mother was a very high drive dog in protection and was trained to work with and without a sleeve with no hesitation. Her mother was a PPD. I am just stumped on this girl. I don't know if she is just being bull headed or what?

When you put her on the leash are you acting all excited or serious?  You might try putting her on the leash and be real up beat and excited. If you use correction immediatley be excited once she moves your direction.

I would not use omit food but you could take her daily amt. of food and feed her only during training.