Hello,
This is my first post on the board. I have a nine month old GSD. He seems to have a high prey drive threshold. By that I mean that he doesn't seem interested in something unless it is moving extremely quick. As a puppy he never mouthed my hands or went after my pant leg. He never really showed too much interest in chasing a ball either. Sometimes he will retrieve a ball and sometimes he'll just stare at it. He rarely will bite a tug that I am holding. I also tried the ball on a string and he shows some interest sometimes. I always assumed he had low prey drive until one day I was watering the grass and he went nuts chasing the stream of water. After observing him getting really worked up over this I decided to go and buy one of those red laser dot lights that they sell at Petco. He really goes after the light. He gets really worked up to the point of almost being possesed. Sometimes he will still be searching for it an hour later. The only thing that I am worried about with using it is that since he can't catch it there is no way for him to relieve the frustration. Anyone have any ideas on this? Is there a way to lower the threshold so that he will chase things that are a little slower? He is on the submissive side could that prevent him from biting a tug I am holding? Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks,
Joe

Welcome to the board Joe! Good to have you. Now on to your drive question. I'm sure there are many ways to help with this, I wil tell you what I would do.

I would get him worked up with that light until such time as he is salivating for it, hahhaha then switch to the tug on a string tied to a pole (this will give you better action with the tug) and see if he will satify his drive with it... really pour on the hype when you switch to the tug, make it exciting.

I'm sure others will have ideas as well.... just sit tight! Then you can try them all!

Your goal should not be to work on his threshold as much as teaching him how you want him to play. First try a few different traditional prey items like ball, tug and kong using methods that you will find in the Bernard tapes. If none of them catches his interest and you are sure that he does have the drives to do the work then comes the hard part. You must teach your dog that the only fun in his life comes from working with the ball. You do this by taking away all toys but the ball. You limit his interactions with people through kenneling except for a few brief sessions a day with him that you use to play ball with him. After some time seeing the ball will trigger his prey drive through frustration.

Or you can always buy a Leerburg dog.

LOL good post Vince! Another shamless plug for Leerburg!

Boxers thank god
Movie stars thank their mom
Dog trainers thank their breeders

A good thing to do is what has been posted. You need to find the toy that he likes the best. Bernhard Flinks has a very effective method with some dogs.
You could also try attaching him to a chain or line, and work other dogs in front of him. You could also try putting him next to another dog that has good prey drive, and fustrate them both, and give the other dog the ball or tug, whatever he likes. This has always worked well for me when I want to develope prey drive with a dog that is not so keen in the begining.
If he shows no intrest at first, just leave him on the pole for a few training sessions and see if he shows intrest. If nothing seems to be working just leave him a few times and see. If it is there in him, the animal will start to show some intrest in what is going on.

Thanks everyone, I am going to try all of the suggestions and see what works. What video would be better to start with, the Bernhard Flinks video or the bite training video? It sounds to me like the Flinks video would be more appropriate at this stage.

Hello! I am new to this board and new to dog training. I have a 23 week-old GSD who I hope to develop into a schutzhund/personal protection dog. I read Vince's post about developing prey drive by taking away all toys but the prey item: My dog loves his "ball-on-a-string" and we work with that often (per Mr. Flink's video on Grip and Focus). However, my puppy stays inside most of the time. My question for Vince is whether he thinks that the technique that he advocates will 1) work for a puppy the age of my dog and 2) whether he thinks there will be adverse consequences to my furniture if I take all my puppy's toys away? What do you folks think? Thanks.

My techniques were for problem solving. You should still be focusing on socialization, building confidence and drive building.

I don't know where to put this, but here goes.
Can a serious, tough dog get locked into prey, or will his true nature come out?