Having troubles switch from treats to toys in your training?

Do you have dogs that are not toy motivated?  Have you ever wanted to train your dog but have found it to be limiting because they will only work for food?  For example, training 2x2's....wouldn't it  be much easier if your dog would respond to toys instead of treats.  That is exactly what sparked me to try and convert my dogs from treats to toys.  I thought I would use today's blog to explain how I trained my dogs to respond to toys instead of treats.  (well actually now they respond to either)

First off what tools do you need?  Have you ever seen Tug N Treat toys?  They are basically a pouch that holds treats attached to a rope.  See the below image, these are available from Clean Run online.

If you have watched the video's of the dogs practicing weaves in previous blogs you may have noticed that I was training with a black bag that looked a lot like a bean bag.  I didn't actually buy a tug n treat toy, I used a pouch that I had that closed securely, it is actually a fabric drawstring pouch that Crystal had in her craft stuff.  I have also used a fabric pencil case before which also worked great. 

So you will start by taking your pouch and filling it with your dogs favorite treats, make sure they are soft and smelly, I used Bill Jac.  Next, practice a trick that your dog already knows, maybe sit or down, ask them to do the command, when they have done it successfully open the pouch and give them a treat.  Do this a few times so they learn that good things come from the bag.

The next part of this exercise will teach several things to your dog:  Retrieve, Tug, and Drop.

So the next step will be to practice some retrieve with your dog, if they do not have a good retieve you will want to do this on leash so that if they hesitate to come back you can gently reel them in.  Also I find it best to do this in the house with you sitting on the floor with no other distractions so only work one dog at a time and pick up all other toys.  Ok to begin I throwing the pouch just a foot or two and use the "bring it here" or "go get it" command.  If your dog does not have a good recall you will want to get out your excited voice to help them get excited about this game, if they pick up the pouch but are not wanting to return with it simply reel them in on the leash.  Once they have returned grab the pouch and start to tug on it to encourage them to tug.  After a few seconds of tugging ask them to "drop it" or just "drop" then open the pouch and reward with a treat!

If you have a dog who does not even want to pick up the pouch you will want to work on this before starting the retrieve step.  To practice this you will sit on the floor with your dog infront of you, start to move the pouch around on the floor, toss it in the air a little, get them interested in it.  The first time they try and touch it with their mouth give a "click-treat" (if you are clicker training) or a "good dog" then a treat as I often use.  Continue the game uping the anti as they start to catch on, so first it could be simply touching the bag with their nose, next could be mouthing it, then they could be putting in mouth a little longer, etc etc.  Once you have the dog successfully holding the pouch in their mouth you can move on to the retrieve step unless you have a dog that doesn't know how to tug, then you will want to try out the steps in the next paragraph first.

If you have a dog that does seem to want to tug you will want to work this after the last step but before retireve.  I have found the easiest way to get my dogs to tug is to rough house with them, I will be down on the floor with them pushing and pulling them until their energy level is up.  Then using a similar method to the paragraph above, tossing and wiggling it on the floor, I get the dog really excited about the pouch but don't let them have it on the first few attempts they make to get it.  Now here you need to understand, I don't tell them they can't have it, remember this is fun game they are playing.  All I do is push them away and/or block them from it with my body, this is all so they want it even more.  Then when they are good and excited about the pouch I let them get it and I don't let go, then I start to shake it side to side and up and down.  I even growl a little if it helps them get excited about it.  After a few seconds, ask them to drop it, then give them a treat.  Once you have achieved this you can move onto the retrieve step above.

What the Retrieve Tug Drop steps will do for you and your dog is ensure that when they retrieve they will bring it to your HAND and not drop it at your feet.  All of my dogs return the toys to our hand and not our feet, I prefer it this way because I want THEM to retrieve....not me.  Often dogs will traing their owners to retrieve...they will drop the toy a foot away...the owner moves and picks it up....next time it it two feet....then three...then before you know it the owner if throwing and retrieving the toy!  Smart Dogs!  If they have to return it to your hand every time you will not have this issue. LOL.

So now that you have your dog successfully working with a tug n treat, you should be able to start to use this to train or shape other things....like the 2 x 2 Weaves.