# Pup not motivated by food



## timberwolf (Apr 1, 2009)

A friend of mine has a 9 month old golden named Woody.
Handsome guy!!! Very laid back!!! A real sweetheart 

She's having a real problem with training though as this guy is not motivated, interested in or cares for food, treats, anything like that - I watched him spit out a piece of cheese and a piece of chicken weiner tonight :no:

Timber's such a chowhound that all he has to do is smell food and I've got his attention! 
I know some of you train without treats and any advice that you can give Jenny would be greatly appreciated.

A big thanks in advance from Jenny and Woody


----------



## CarolinaCasey (Jun 1, 2007)

Is he at all interested in toys or tugging on a fleece-rope/leash ? ? ? 

Food motivation makes things much easier!! I'm no help!


----------



## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

How does he like toys? What kind of training is she trying to do?

I taught Scout as a puppy to sit by gently molding her in one when she came to greet me and praising and petting her. She thought it was great and it worked like a charm! The trick behind it, is you have to wait until they want your attention (i.e. coming over) and then use it to your advantage. So, she got my attention and pets when she sat.

I also taught a really solid recall without food or leashes for that matter (though starting using food more as she goes through the trying adolescent years). Really little puppies do not want to leave your side, so I took her for off-leash romps where I could and we played hide and seek with me always hiding and her always seeking. She learned recall was a fun game where she raced back to get back to me. Since she has an older pup though, he would need to be on a long line to teach recall. Same concept, but you have the option of reeling them in which you need. Never a problem with Scout as a little puppy--but I knew how to get her in if needed.


----------



## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

hmmm....a golden that doesn't like food. Sure he's a golden? j/k

Your friend needs to find what does motivate her dog. Tugging on a toy, retrieving a tennis ball, a nice butt scratch, a high squeaky voice of praise, etc. There has to be something that the dog enjoys.

She can also go the route of having the dog work for his meals. Even a dog that isn't crazy about treats realizes that it does need to eat to survive.


----------



## kgiff (Jul 21, 2008)

I have one of those rare goldens who is not very motivated by food. I never know whether or not we're going to be able to use food until we get to a training class and even then, sometimes it takes him a while to warm up to the idea. He's sat there and spit out just about everything I've offered at some point.

Occasionally, once he gets more excited and into class he'll start accepting food. And sometimes we have better luck with the home made treats than store bought treats.

He'll do a lot of work for "good boys," butt scratches, me letting him jump up to touch my hand, and we've eventually worked up to him liking to tug at least in some situations. 

I also found not feeding him before class was not a good idea because then he was over-focused on the food and that wasn't good either.

I can certainly sympathize with your friend. But Loisiana is right, there is _something_ that will motivate the dog.


----------



## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

1) The dog has to eat at sometime. Use that time for training at home.
2) Video/monitor the dog at home v. at class. Look specifically for signs of stress.
3) Find what is reinforcing for that dog. Also use those things to teach him to eat food.
4) Get a complete health check. A big number of dogs who are hesitant to eat have underlying health issues.
5) Use all meals for training. This will increase interest in food for MANY hesitant eaters.

And be super aware of threshold/stress levels. Not wanting to train with food is another thing, a dog not eating is a completely different issue.

I have empathy! Two of mine are not as great of eaters as I would like and it does take more work for me to monitor how they are feeling.


----------



## tino4ever (May 12, 2008)

hey 
same prob i had with tino. he did not really get motivated by food (homemade or not), toys was just a bother, laying in bed was the best. lol.
He neither got motivated by voice, and it was extremly anoying.. the only food he enjoyed at the end was food others ate at outside tables, which he was definately not allowed to grab.

we had him healthchecked too, and nothing was wrong. he would eat during his meaals though, which is good. but food while working, or training for fun, no..

but the one thing i found was motivating Tino, was to have another playmate insight. "maybe i get to play?" he'd do almost anything to get to play afterwards. so that was fun 

greetings from Ranveig.


----------



## Jupiter's Human (Aug 22, 2009)

I would echo what Red Dogs says: Find out what does motivate the dog. It may be that praise and/or attention from the owner is what the dog craves most. Whatever that dog will work for is the thing that you should use to motivate him. Than associate a "click" from the clicker with that motivating thing. Treats are not the only way.


----------



## danni's_girl (Mar 24, 2009)

My girl Danni is also not food motivated... AT ALL. I used a rope toy with her for a long time. For a reward I say "tug!" and she gets really crazy, but she knows "ok, stop" is time to get back to work. 

But then one day I found magic: Nature's balance food rolls. She likes the lamb one best. Definitely have your friend give those a try if they haven't yet...they are like dog-gold.


----------



## Bock (Jun 23, 2008)

tennis ball or a stuffed dog toy always works for Tysen-especially those that squeak or make animal noises.

When they do what you want them to give them the toy or throw the ball for just a few seconds (3-5) and then take it back.


----------



## Phillyfisher (Jan 9, 2008)

+1 Red Dog! Tucker would not take treats during our walks. We started a policy of us hand feeding him his dinner on his walk. If he did not eat then, he did not get dinner. The first time, he did not eat on his walk. How many dinners did he miss before starting to eat on a walk? Only that first one! Now he will take treats on his walks. If he doesn't take a treat now, I know it is because he is stressed, and I try to figure out why it is so. Usually it is just because he is in a new place. So if we just sit down and take it in, he will relax, and start taking treats.


----------



## Ranger (Nov 11, 2009)

Ranger isn't too food motivated either. He does love his hot dogs - the real nasty stinky ones, no turkey dogs for him - but they're not the top of his list of motivation. When we do training, I either do training right before his supper so it's been a few hours after his breakfast or when we do our training sessions in the morning, he doesn't get his breakfast til afterwards.

I found stuffie fleecy toys are his main motivation. He doesn't get to play with them during the week, just during training class when his attention totally elsewhere, even with a hot dog waved in his face. We actually had a training class a few weeks ago working on recalls and Bender was holding on to Ranger while I was 30 ft away from him. I called him and he hesitated, wondering if he should go elsewhere, when he all of sudden locked on to the toy I was waving in front of me. He SHOT towards me like a bullet and had a rewarding game of tug. His attention was on me for the rest of the lesson! Sometimes it just has to be a really, really good toy!


----------



## oliver1024 (Mar 13, 2010)

Oliver is the EXACT same way, he is not food motivated what so ever, infact he just nibbles his food little by little through out the day until he's done. He's also VERY laid back and calm and doesnt have any issues as far as jumping,leash pulling,etc our only problem is we'd like to teach him some basic obedience like 'sit,down,etc' and I tried every treat known to man, toys, praise,etc and it just wasnt working for us and I almost just let him be since he isn't out of control or hyper but then something amazing happened when we brought home our Boxer pup who is food motivated...our boxer pup learned his basic commands very quickly and we slowly started noticing Oliver copying the boxer pup when we give him commands and now Oliver can sit and lay down about 80% of the time on command!!!


----------

