Training without treats

[Kevenglish]

I rescued a male boxer last week who came from an unknown background and his age is only a guess, maybe between 2 and 4 years. When I got him he pulled on the leash and within a day, using an Easy Walk harness, he is walking and jogging with me on a loose leash. What I am struggling with now is sit, down, and stay. He has absolutely no interest in every treat I have tried. Whose ever heard of a dog that doesn't like treats?

Every time I catch him doing what I want I praise him and say things like "good sit," but to no avail. Perhaps I am expecting too much too soon, but he seems so smart and wants to please.

I was wondering about clicker training. I have never tried it and was wondering if it will even work if he doesn't care about treats. Obviously, I need to be patient, but was wondering what methods other people have tried that did not involve treats. Everything I have read involves treats.

Thanks in advance,

 

[DiverDiva]

When I was a kid, I trained my Black Lab, Kippy without treats. First lesson was "Come". I ran away and she chased me. When she caught me, I loved on her, told her what a smart and wonderful puppy she was, and played with her. Once she got to love the little play sessions, that became the reward. Now, this may not work for all persons or dogs. Kippy was a playful two month old puppy and I was 13 and did not worry about appearing undignified to the neighbors.

 

[BroD]

Sounds just like my Brody!! He could care less about treats, they meant absolutely nothing to him-- our trainer was amazed because most dogs are very food-motivated. Even if he would take a treat he wouldn't eat it, he'd just spit it out. (Teaching him "come" was the most difficult, because we had nothing to offer him that was better than what he was doing!) The trick is to find what your dog IS motivated by-- be it attention or praise or play, etc. and use that as a reward. A favorite squeaky toy can be a great motivator, and could easily take the place of a treat for a picky dog!

 

[apollosdad]

if your dog doesn't care for edible treats, try using a tennis ball, squeaky toy, or some other toy that they might really like. allow them a few seconds of playtime with it. then simply remove the toy while they are playing with it, and perform some training command, and when they perform the command properly simply return it to them and allow them to play some more. the key is to not let the dog play with the toy until they get tired of it, so they are always eager to work for it.

if all else fails, praise in the form of affection and petting are always a great reinforcer.

good luck.

 

[larrygs]

Definitely good advice. I never used treats with prior boxers and they got trained.

I reluctantly decided to use treats with our current puppy, Layla and it does help. There is a real variety of treats out there. Perhaps just you haven't found what he likes yet. Layla has spit some out and others she loves. On really difficult things we will escalate to small pieces of organic chicken hot dogs. Don't get my wrong, this isn't a routine diet, but sometimes it can be hard to get a puppy to really focus. Example is learning to heel, off lease, past distractions.

 

[Jan]

I would suspect that you haven't tried good enough treats. Most of treats that you get at the store are not very good. Try using real meat, cheese or making treats like Tuna Fudge, which are awesome treats. I have never known a dog to not want them, unless they are really really stressed out and nothing will work. I wouldn't think that would be the case with your dog. You really need stinky treats, that is one of the reasons that the Tuna Fudge works so well. If you do a search on the forums you will find the recipe. They are really easy to make and one batch lasts a long time. You just freeze the extras.

Some dogs do work better for toys. My Tara would do anything to get to retrieve a ball or get a squeaky toy. Sometimes it is just finding out what they will work for.

Good luck

 

[BxrMommieNAZ]

I train simply with LOTS of praise. I do not treat train for anything and have always had success with training my dogs. Just lots of pets and praise when they do it correctly. There are many other methods though. Good luck!

 

[Kevenglish]

Thanks for the advice

The trick is to find what your dog IS motivated by

I took Rico to the pet store and they let me try a bunch of treats and he didn't care about any of them. But last night I figured out just the thing, string cheese. A small piece of cheese had him sitting and laying down in no time at all. This morning he did it with ease. While the cheese was great he still responds best to lots of love and there is plenty of that going around our house! We have completely fallen for boxers!

 

[Super Boo]

I second the string cheese method. Scarlett would look at me, think for a minute (hmmm I wonder if that stupid dry cookie is worth it), and take off the other way. I started with the string cheese a couple of days ago and her recall is now perfect :D .