April 12, 2011

My 15 month old DDR pup loses interest in drive work after a few minutes. What can I do to build his drive up?

Full Question:
Hi Ed,



My name is Brian, and I have a situation that I would like to have some feedback with a professional dog trainer. I will try to explain this the best I can, and keep it as short as possible. I have a 15 week old DDR GSD. He has many good qualities. calm, good nerve, not fearful of anything or anyone, but his prey drive seems to be lacking somewhat, for example, today I was working on bite training, he done good for a couple minutes...some nice bites...then lost his interest. He would chase the rag around, but never did get a good bite after that. I put him back in his box for about 20 minutes or so, then tried again. He had very little interest. I feel this is my fault. I didn't do a great job of imprinting, but I did do imprinting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the problem is that I let him have way too much fun with another dog, and my question is, did I ruin the dog, and is it too late to bring out the drive? I believe he had it in him, and I believe he had it in him when I bought him. Therefore, I'm looking for some advice and tips that I can do to bring out the drive. Another thing is he does great biting here at the house, but when I get him at the club he doesn't show so much interest. So with that said, I will close for now, and hope to here from you soon.



Thanks,
Brian
Ed
Ed Ed's Answer:
What you are experiencing is normal with a lot of young dogs. Quite often young pups have much stronger food drive at a young age than prey drive.



It is very common for a dogs window of prey drive to be opened after the dog has gone through teething. So it's important to continue to check for the prey drive by seeing if the dog will play tug - but in the mean time you should be training this dog with food.



Almost all young puppies have more food drive than prey drive. Follow the work in the DVD I did on the power of training dogs with food.



Then when you see his prey drive starting to build, move him into the work on our tug DVDs.

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