spiritdogs
Posted : 1/25/2008 8:03:29 AM
l.michelle
Both of my pups are not very food motivated. I tried to train them by using food at first, and they weren't very interested. I used the same method as DPU, I use a hand signal and say "sit" when they do, they get head squishes (something the both of them enjoy a lot), they get hugs and tonnes of praise. Then we do it again, and that's how I got through to them.
My dogs are HUGE snugglers and huggers. They will come up with me on the couch and will lift up under my arm so my arm is over them. If i move it, Zack will paw at me until I put it back.
I don't see a problem depending on the dog, if the dog truly doesn;t like it, then you wouldn't do it, but with other dogs, that's what works with them. No dog is the same.
Putting a nose up under your arm, or pawing at you, are both "demand" behaviors. In other words, the dog is asking you for something. For some dogs, it's attention (in your case, I suspect that's it). For other dogs, it's that they want to go out, or they want dinner, or whatever. You are very correct that it is the dog that chooses the motivator. However, I do consistently find in my classes that owners who bring the dog's regular treat that they like at home (usually it's something like Snausages or milk bones - ugh) cannot compete with the interest shown by the dogs whose owners are smart enough to have listened at the lecture, and who bring multitudinous tiny bits of chicken, cheese, or roast beef. When you confront puppies with heavy distraction (a "puppy party" such as happens at the first couple of play times, LOL) then you need to ramp up the treats to get their attention away from those other puppies. Granted, you do NOT need to do that forever, just in the beginning. I find that when owners aren't so stubbornly attached to the idea that they don't want the dog getting "human food", or they aren't so stingy with the rewards at first, then the dogs do very well with them using food as the motivator. We do get the occasional dog that likes to work for toys better than food, but it is so rare it isn't worth mentioning. All protestations to the contrary, this comes from our experiences with literally thousands of dogs over a period of years. The hardest thing isn't training the dogs using food, it's convincing opinionated owners to give it a try. Most of the time, though, it takes them watching their dog following some other owner around the hall (because that person has something that smells better than the milk bones) to alert them that their dog does have preferences. Sometimes, we even get dogs that turn up their noses at roast beef - because they are "cheese dogs". Before I assume that a dog is not food motivated, I try many different types of food to see if all that is happening is that the dog has a preference. Also, some dogs come in to class and won't take food, but it has nothing to do with motivation per se. It's because they are simply too anxious. Those owners often report that the dog does take treats at home and is learning the behaviors taught in class. So, we work on some classical conditioning outside of class to help the dog feel more at ease around other dogs, new people, etc. so that the owners can eventually get the dog fluent in the behaviors in more distracting situations. Often, those dogs, if they are just mildly stressed at first, are much more comfortable by week 3 or 4 of class, because they have realized that nothing bad happens to them in our venue.