My puppy is not food motivated,how do I train her? She won't take the training treats.

[YVETTE SPEARS]

Hi,

I have a 9 week old Shi-tzu, she loves her Primal food but will not touch training treats, I am on my 4th brand with no luck and have also tried hotdogs.  How do I train without treats?  Her food is frozen raw and I cannot keep it on hand as a treat as it has to be handled carefully.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi Yvette, welcome to the forums and congrats on your new puppy!

I think Primal raw makes little cubed raw food that some people use for training, but of course the risks for pathogens remains.  If you are concerned about handling the food, maybe you can wear disposable gloves? 

How do you get the raw food out of the package to serve it to her? If you use your hands, I would take advantage of that time for training and skip feeding her from the bowl. You can hand feed her the raw in the area where she normally eats and then wash hands and disinfect everything.

You can also spoon feed the raw or use tongs. I saw a video not too long ago of a trainer putting the raw food in a squeeze bottle and squeezing it out. 

Also, may be you can try baking some of her raw food? I like to bake beef liver as high value treats for dogs and then cut them into small pieces. 

You can train without treats, but depending on what you are trying to train, it can be a bit challenging. If she's toy motivated it may work, you would use the toy in place of a the food lure and then reward by tossing it. You can also try capturing and tossing a ball to reward desired behaviors. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/what-is-capturing-in-dog-training/

If he likes a tug toy see if you can use it to get her to sit or lie down in lieu of a treat and then praise and let her tug. For stays, you may not even need any food, as being freed from the stay is reinforcing on its own, but still try to toss something (not raw) to reward her and see if he'll eat it. Some dogs will eat more readily when something is tossed. 

Here are high value foods you may have not tried yet, but please read the labels carefully as some can still contain pathogens and need careful handling:

• Baked calf liver (fresh and baked in the oven and cut into trips)
• Liverwurst (Braunschweiger, use in moderation)
• Freeze dried liver (can contain pathogens)
• Green tripe treats (can contain pathogens)
• Cheez-its
• Cheerios
• Shredded rotisserie chicken
• Cut up mozzarella stick
• Zuke's mini training treat salmon
• Ziwi air-dried dog foods  (still can contain pathogens)
• Air dried beef lung treats  (still can contain pathogens)
• Fresh Pet's Food Rolls (may contain pathogens)
• Blueberries

I hope this helps, of course, always use caution with handling raw foods.