So I have a 13 week old female malinois that I adopted Tuesday. She and Radar are currently carbon copies in the same feet-in-the-air sleeping position.

When I went to look at her, the guy who was fostering the pups told me that he feels she has very high food drive. I watched him interact with her and noticed he uses a lot of methods we might see in a ME video on motivational training. What I saw was a man who had great movement and method, and a dog that went along with it.
Then he brought out the flirt pole with a hard sleeve on it and her prey drive is very good. I'd rank it a 6 on a 1-10 scale. To me, it's obvious her prey drive hasn't been built on.

Now when I try to engage her with food she ... goes along with it. She lacks enthusiasm, is easily distracted off of the food. She focuses, but if there's something moving she's looking at it instead of me.

I took her out this morning on a long line with my flirt pole and she went nuts over it. It was the time of day when kids are walking to the bus stop and she would look at them but if the rag was moving, she was going after it and the kids weren't even on her mind.

My gut reaction is that she's a prey drive dog and I need to get her an age appropriate toy. I plan on getting videos of us using food and us using a toy and let you guys help me make a decision. My concern is this guy seemed to really know his stuff. He's titled dogs before, he's a working dog home, his wife is huge into schutzhund, he was adamant the pups go to working homes. Maybe he's seeing something I'm not seeing? Maybe he's stuck in his own methods and it's just not going to work for her? He did tell me he was a food trainer, and his wife is a toy trainer. I like to believe people who seem to know dogs would be flexible on how they train the individual animal in front of them, but some people are stubborn. I just don't know at this point.

Basically he's got me second guessing myself and I want some feedback. Until I get the videos up, does anyone have anything to say?

well , off the top of my head , if you want to be following ME philosophy , you won't be using the toy until . . .

biting with energy ( sounds like she does already )

will " out " readily

returns the toy with no conflict


you can be developing these things at the same time you are using food to lure into behaviours , shaping .

i don't think it is an either / or proposition .

The idea behind food vs toy is simply that many puppies can't control themselves when the toy is present. Teach with food then switch to a toy/tug/etc. You or someone with lots of experience needs to figure that out.

http://leerburg.com/flix/videodesc.php?id=206
details what Ian posted about the 3 things to have in place

http://leerburg.com/flix/player.php/747/Should_I_train_my_dog_with_food_and_tug_work_at_the_same_time

I never used food with Radar. He was unable to control himself when it came to eating, but had remarkable focus and desire to work even younger than this female pup when a toy was used as a reward. Radar is the only puppy I've ever had experience with raising and training for work. All other puppies have been fosters and were taught basics and adopted very quickly (less than two weeks in my home).

Thank you for the links, Connie

After rewatching the ME training with food DVD and doing some flirt pole work with the puppy, I feel right by developing her tug drive and using her kibble meals to do some general obedience and tracking.