I have a 1 yr old male workingline gsd,,when he was a pup he exhibited good drives ball and tug but after months he was just set to roam in my lawn with his parents and assessed again we noticed he didnt have the same drive anymore?can it still be remedied?or its just that he doesnt have it really in him?someone suggested that he be tied and not let be free to encourage the drive again when training...is that recommendable?

 Quote: didier jimenez

I have a 1 yr old male workingline gsd,,when he was a pup he exhibited good drives ball and tug but after months he was just set to roam in my lawn with his parents and assessed again we noticed he didnt have the same drive anymore?can it still be remedied?or its just that he doesnt have it really in him?someone suggested that he be tied and not let be free to encourage the drive again when training...is that recommendable?

His parents? You have a pack left to associate with each other all day with no humans?

Tied? Outside? No!

Why is he outside with dogs all day, made to be dog-bonded instead of handler-bonded?

What is his day like?

What training are you doing?

coz i have a lawn which is 4000 square foot fenced,and my dogs are free to roam around which in this case my 1 yr old is with his parnts and i only attend to it when it is feedin time..there are interactions with people yes but not to the point of training,i also notice that when it gets naughty the father bites him to discipline or something.i noticed when i checked at him to see his drives again with ball and tug,it seems that he lost it already...is it stil possible for him to get it back so i could train it?or has he lost it?

In my very limited experience, toy drive must be consistently worked as a puppy and through adolescence in order to be maintained.

Growing up we had several dogs that were pretty much thrown in a yard, as you describe, and ignored. Most of these dogs probably had some level of prey drive because they certainly enjoyed chasing rabbits, cats, gophers, motorcycles, flapping pieces of tarp, etc. However the only ones who ever showed the slightest interest in a ball or tug, were either under 6 months old, or one specific dog that I consistently worked with from a young age. I think the others just didn't understand that these were toys; they weren't nearly as interesting as a live animal.

Can they be taught to? I'd like to think so, as long as the basic instincts are strong. I personally have tried with two or three of them, without any success, though. I'm not much of a trainer, though, and wasn't able to be very consistent.

Honestly, your setup sounds like a great way to raise a very frustrated, poorly behaved, doggy animal, who sees humans merely as automatic food dispensers.

 Quote: Kristin Mortensen

Honestly, your setup sounds like a great way to raise a very frustrated, poorly behaved, doggy animal, who sees humans merely as automatic food dispensers.

This a pretty good description of the dog I am currently trying to bring from my parents house (and the way she was raised). She was moderately playful as an adolescent. Can't say what she was like before then.

I have a dog that mostly interacted with dogs the first year of her life. We had a REALLY hard time to get her to play at all even though as a puppy she had decent drive for toys. I had given up and my last resort was a seminar with a Czech trainer. He got her to play and we trained him every time he came around (about once a month or every other month) plus my own efforts meanwhile. She bites the bite pillow and the sleeve with passion and plays with one type of Gappay tug and even then this isn´t very intense. All other toys... well I personally can get her to bite because she knows my "play moves" and bites but it feels like she is doing it to make me happy, not because she likes it. She passed ZTP and I am sure she could hang on enough to pass IPO1 but this is after 4 years of constant work and living nose-to-nose with me, not running around with other dogs for days on end.

At some point I trained a working line (or some sort of mix of show and working lines- the owner had picked him for his working line backround but I know too little of them to judge how much of a working line) GSD that the owner didn´t really have time for anymore. Our trainer told me that the dog had intense drives as a puppy but 1,5 years of running around in the yard with the other dog, he was a big fat sleepyhead. He did hang on and bit the sleeve but his ca. 40 kg was a breeze to handle and hold on to (drive building exercises in bitework) compared to my sleepyhead 30 kg doberman.

Perhaps they didn´t have it in them the first place but I am completely sure that if worked on their first year, they both would have been ALOT better. Ofcourse I am not a professional but that is what the local professionals have told me as well.

 Quote:

toy drive must be consistently worked as a puppy and through adolescence in order to be maintained.

Another person with limited experience here, but this has not been the case for me.

I have had two adult dogs that have been turned on to a prey item after I've gotten them - one at 3 y/o and one at close to 2 y/o. The 3 y/o took to toys like a duck to water. The 2 y/o took a bit of work on my part, but I knew his breeding and that he had it in his genes. He had a cat fixation habit that was a total pain to work through, but through lots of prevention, correction and redirection he would now prefer a frisbee or tug to a cat.

I'm currently working with a 14 m/o dog I got 4 months ago. She was given very little human interaction until 8 months old, but her drive is really popping out too.

Besides the cat issue, none of these dogs had much interaction with other animals or people either, so they were craving some interaction and hadn't developed many bad habits. So maybe that worked in my favor. Part two to the matter was that I was actively working on building drives on a daily basis, not just leaving them to find their own entertainment.

To the OP, if you want to work with your dogs drive, you need to actively be working on it. You should be working with drive building exercises with him one on one several times a day. Engage him, let him learn to have fun with you. Build a relationship with him and work on making his training time with you the greatest thing in his life. It's no surprise that a dog in the backyard with little human interaction doesn't show a lot of drive for toys.

 Quote: Mara Jessup

Part two to the matter was that I was actively working on building drives on a daily basis, not just leaving them to find their own entertainment.

You mean you've been consistently drive-building since you've gotten these dogs? I would really like to learn how to do this, especially because of my soon-to-be dog. In her case I'm not sure it's possible though, since she's almost 11 now and I doubt her drives are genetically stellar. Something to try, I guess.

The two older dogs don't need the drive building anymore. But I do still do it occasionally with them because they enjoy it. With my oldest dog her drived just kind of popped when she saw a bouncing ball.

With the middle dog, it took about a year until I had his toy drive to where I wanted it. When I got him he really didn't care about toys at all at first. It took several weeks before it clicked. I would go out in the yard with him with a squeaky ball and act like it was the greatest thing e.v.e.r. and then stop the game while he was still very interested - we had a lot of 1 minute sessions when I first started! Once it clicked I just had to build on it bit by bit. Today he is a dog that very eagerly works for a frisbee.

I did know my dog had it in his genetics as he was a working bred Border Collie who was over the top eager to work sheep.

My current youngster came from rescue. I wanted another drivey dog and she had demonstrated some nice drive in rescue. But before they got her she had never played at all. With her it is more a matter of building on that and and gradually increasing her focus. Once again, it's incremental and I try to get at least 2-3 short but intense sessions in each day. I'm also working so she see fun as playing with a person as opposed to grabbing the toy and owning it.

Get a soft toy on a rope that you can drag around your yard to simulate a small critter and that should help perk the dogs interest - make the toy come alive and make the dog need to work just a bit to get it. Drag it around, stop it jerk it away when your dog goes to pounce on it. Let your dog win when they get really into it. Then stop the game when your dog is really into it - leave them wanting more. Leerburg does have a DVD on drive building. Or if you have someone in your area who does schutzhund you might be able to go see it in action.