My department has gotten me a new dog per our former SGT's request. (My 3rd dog in a year) I'm still new at this I trying to make some sense of what's going on with my current K9 partner. The dog I have is a single purpose lab used for drug detection. The dog has a great search drive and just seems to love to search. We've had the dog now since about Oct 2008 and the problem that we have been experiencing in lack of possiveness when it comes to playing with a toy. The dog will ignore the toy and go back to searching. We have been through about 5 toys now. I'm currently using a rope and seem to have some sucess from that but of course I've been down this road before. Unfortunately I did not see the initial testing of the dog and did not get the dog until about a month ago so for now I have what I have and have to make the best of it. I've tried tieing him back and teasing with his toys but he'll just turn me off when he's done. (very short sessions)
He is about a year old and was perviously being trained to be a bird dog which I believe generally requires a soft mouth. Looking for any suggestions to help curve this problem. Have been considering food but not sure if this would work considering he's an aggressive alert dog. HELP Please!!

Try this...
Building Drive & Focus with Bernhard Flinks DVD

It's not uncommon to see this in dogs from good hunting stock. Often times, you'll find the reward is the chase and the retrieve. The dog has probably been trained to give up the tug/toy/ball etc, as soon as it's returned to the handler. With that in mind and if the dog is working, is playing tug with the toy all that important. If the retrieve alone is driving the behavior, then recognize that for what it is and use it as the primary reinforcement. The dog determines the value of a reward. With that said; is the dog searching; is the dog finding the targets; is the dog responding. If all that is working as it should, then I wouldn't worry about playing tug.

DFrost

Absolutely. If the retrieve is what gives the dog enjoyment, use that.

 Quote: Howard Knauf

Absolutely. If the retrieve is what gives the dog enjoyment, use that.

I just recently had someone bring a chocolate lab to me for training with the same motivation. The dog would spit a ball at me all day long to play fetch and it was the best training tool with that particular dog.

Guys thanks for the responses!! They certainly give me something to consider and work with. This is the first time I've seen these behaviors with a dog. My department has 14 canines, all of them Shephard except mine and everything I've learned and read is different from what I've been seeing from my dog which often leaves me puzzeled as to why he's still searching. The majority of the reward is my praise and often doesn't care about toys. I guess to be honest with myself I haven't given it my all like I have with me other two dogs...mainly because I've been really discouraged because of my department and it's been affecting my work...However I started some drive exercises but only for about a day now but it seem to have made a difference so far. I'm getting back on track with my attitude which certainly could be some of the problem. Any idea about other drive exercises? Thanks for the help

You said in your first post; "The dog has a great search drive and just seems to love to search." What kind of drive exercises do you need. If the dog is working great and loves to search, play the retrieve game and to heck with whether or not he has possessiveness of the toy.

DFrost