Motivational Toy Or Exercises For Easily Distracted Pup?

[Stitch]

I am having a hard job finding a toy/tug for my boy that he will obsess about.

He is nearly 5 months old and is more interested in what is going on around him especially when on a walk or in training class.

He is quite good at giving me eye contact at home, I have been working on that for months, but again when he is out on a walk or in training class, I struggle to get eye contact from him.

All my other dogs (same breed) would kill for a toy, any toy, but not him.

This boy is not as sure of himself as all my others so that is a contributing factor, which is why I want him to obsess about a toy or tug.

Can anyone offer any advice please?

[Stressmagnet]

Watching this. Same problem.

[huski]

Will he play with toys at home when there is no distraction?

What toys have you tried?

[sheena]

Does it need to be a toy?? Not all dogs are toy motivated...maybe food might be his thing

[Kavik]

I'm finding that it takes time :laugh:

My youngster is still rather easily distracted (loves everyone and everything!) :laugh: but we are making headway.

What breed and what toys have you tried?

[Justrace]

maybe see if you can borrow some other people/dogs things to see if there is something that they really like. I'd tried so many things & happened to be training with someone that had something that my boy just loved. Found the squiggle it from clean run - which was very similar and that was the only thing that he wanted to tug with. I tried a few other things after he'd learnt to enjoy a game of tug, but nope, just didn't like them.

[Nekhbet]

If he wont play, put him away for a 5 minutes and go do something fun without him. If you can borrow another dog or have another motivated dog even better. Then try again, if he ignores you, back you go and be ignored yourself.

Dont fight the dog for attention, if he wont come to the table with attention then he can go think about it and have no possibility of getting reward from anywhere.

[Stitch]

He will play with a toy with me at home although not enthusiastically.

He loses interest quickly. As I said he is very different in that regard to my other dogs.

He likes food but again not enthusiastically, so it is easy for him to become distracted and difficult for me to get his attention.

I will try playing with others and putting him away if he isn't interested.

Should he be able to see the other dog having fun without him??

[Nekhbet]

You have to pull back what he can access in general then. I've seen the most unenthused dogs after being shown the sink or swim principle suddenly go gung ho into playing.

If he's just staring at the other dogs and owners he can just get frustrated. If you dont have another dog then cover him with a blanket on that side so he cant just sit there staring and working himself up towards them. If you have another dog put him away and let him see you having fun with that dog and see if that works him up.

If you find he's that unmotivated make it a little harder to get especially the toys before he grabs it. Technique can go a long way, use something soft like some fabric on a string and little tugs along the ground. If he's half hearted in his attempts just nip it out of his reach and when you see that spark of enthusiasm let him have it. Don't let it be too easily attained or it's just not that exciting and the reward potential is not worth the effort the dog will put in. Same with food, keep the dog lean and if he's that not hungry use something fresh and dont feed him at all on the day. There's ways and means of increasing enthusiasm ;)

[Stitch]

Thank you for that Nekhbet, I will try putting him in a crate and then play with another dog and let him watch.

I now realise, after reading & thinking about your post, that he has a very low frustration level....all my others have medium to high frustration levels.

Maybe I can work on increasing that frustration level a little although I have to say he is a very easy dog to live with! LOL