Hi all, I'm hoping you can help me. I have a 6 month old GSD that could care less about food so I'm having a big problem getting her to track. She will track her ball to no end. Is there anyway to train her to track with a ball or what advise can you give to get her tracking a bated track?

June,
This will sound simplistic, but if your dog is hungry enough, it'll work for food.

I've taken several non-food motivated dogs and made excellent trackers out of them by simply not feeding them for one day, then two days, even up to three days ( *no* dog has remained uninterested in food past the third day of no chow, and I've done this more than a dozen times already ) until they couldn't wait to get at that food.

It'll work, but you have to harden your heart during this type of training for a short while to get results.
It will work, though.

I agree with Will and it does work. My Bloodhound is a natural trailing dog but we did have to build "victim loyalty" since we are in search and rescue. I figured out which food is Max's MOST favorite treat in the world and that the only time he gets it is when we are trailing or when we are doing scent article work, so he knows that when he finds the "victim", or he comes up to the scent article and gives it a good once over he gets this food and although we are "on-lead" trailing, when he gets to the "victim" he goes into a down and stays there until I pull him off. So it may be beneficial to you not only to use the "no food" for a couple days but also figure out which food your dog absolutely will go nuts for and only use it to train with.
After Max got the idea he now is on the "variable schedule of reward" program which means once in awhile the "victim" only uses praise or maybe even just lays there and not responding and he does not get the food. This is done because in the "real world" a lost or missing person is not going to have his reward. It does not affect his trailing at all, since he never knows when the variable will happen and also when there is no food I make sure he gets extra praise from me when he finds which he loves also.
Good Luck <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks Will I cant belive i didnt think of taking away the food. problem is its hard to find any food she likes enough to drive her wild.but taking away the food all together just might work. I'm training 4 dogs/pups to track and she's the only one that dont seem to like it. I have a 3 month old male thats already tracking around 100 feet tracks, he is food crazy i think he just might be my FH2...anyway thanks for the help......

Hi June,

Whatever Will said was correct, but I also have an extra tip for you.

Since your dog is crazy for the ball, at the end of the track do not put any food. Instead of the of food, use the ball as the reward. This way you will condition your dog's mind so that the ultimate reward at the end of the track will be his favorite toy. You should also be careful because the dog might start to speed on the track to reach his final reward: the ball. If you can train him this way, it will be much more easier to remove the food from the track. The dog in the end will be tracking for the ball not the food.

Let me know how things work out for you. I am always here to help. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yours Truly,
Francesco Carotenuto k9nation1@aol.com