Getting a dog to work????

[Redtail74]

I have a 11 month old male that wont do anything. I cant get him to work a spring pole, he wont play with anything. It's like he was beat or something when he was younger because as soon as you pick up a ball or something to throw out in the yard he takes off running the other way like he thinks your going to beat him and he has done this since I got him. I have had him since he was 7 months old and I have taken my time so far with him but I want to start working with at least a spring pole. Anyone have any idea's that may get him going?

[COREY KNIGHT]

You Have To Build His Confidence And Make Him Sure Of Himself. Does He Ever Bring A Toy To U At All? Will He Play Tug Of War? Try Taking Him Running. And Maybe Bring A Ball After He Has Been Running 4 A While He Might Get Into It. I Built My Dogs Confidence In About A Week. Play With Him In A Room Where He Cant Run U Play With Him First Then Bring In Toys

[Bdks lady]

Let him learn to trust you first it could take awhile before he is ready to open up to you, but i am sure once he does he will be very loving and protective over you. After he becomes used to you then i am sure he will be ready to do the things you want him to.

[Bubba]

Some dogs won't work a spring or flirt pole, the best bet I would say would be for you to find out what he likes to work, then from there maybe try to add things to his workout and see if he picks up on it,make sure to give him alot of praise...

BB

[puregame]

My dog O.G. was a very serious puppy. He never played or did much of anything till he was about a year old. Before trying to get him to do flirt pole work get him to play with you. Even if its just wrestling or chasing each other. Then as he get more confident start adding new things into his routine. Teach him to fetch anything thats fun. It sounds like all you need to build his prey drive.

puregame

[Redtail74]

This dog wont do anything! He wont chase me in the yard, if you throw a ball or anything for him to go get he runs the other way as fast and as far as he can. I never seen anything like this before. The other male and the female I have will do just about anything but this guy wont do anything. I have caught him from time to time messing with the spring pole but as soon as he sees me watching him, he stops and wont touch it again. Hes not shy around people, he just wont play or do anything. I've tried everything I know so I figured maybe some guys on here had ran into a dog like this before and had something that worked. I wont give up on him for sure I have high hopes for this guy.

[puregame]

This dog wont do anything! He wont chase me in the yard, if you throw a ball or anything for him to go get he runs the other way as fast and as far as he can. I never seen anything like this before. The other male and the female I have will do just about anything but this guy wont do anything. I have caught him from time to time messing with the spring pole but as soon as he sees me watching him, he stops and wont touch it again. Hes not shy around people, he just wont play or do anything. I've tried everything I know so I figured maybe some guys on here had ran into a dog like this before and had something that worked. I wont give up on him for sure I have high hopes for this guy.
Be patient with him. You have to give it time. Hes' still young anyway. Like I said my dog did absolutely nothing. He learned to jump when he was 14 months old :) . I have a few things that might work....but i need to know a few things about your dog first. Like where do you keep him inside or out? How often you walk him.... ect.. I worked with a dog trainer for performance breeds for a while and I still do some training work on the side. I will PM you my AIM. If you'd like some advice feel free to get back with me. i am by no means a professional trainer but i do work with them almost everyday, and my advice is FREE!:D

puregame

[J M A N]

Maybe he don't like you......LOL http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/29/29_3_1.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001) Just Joking!

This dog wont do anything! He wont chase me in the yard, if you throw a ball or anything for him to go get he runs the other way as fast and as far as he can. I never seen anything like this before. The other male and the female I have will do just about anything but this guy wont do anything. I have caught him from time to time messing with the spring pole but as soon as he sees me watching him, he stops and wont touch it again. Hes not shy around people, he just wont play or do anything. I've tried everything I know so I figured maybe some guys on here had ran into a dog like this before and had something that worked. I wont give up on him for sure I have high hopes for this guy.

[Redtail74]

LOL JMAN. I take him for walks atleast 3 times a week. He's mainly an outside dog but we do let him in from time to time so he will be used to carpet ;). Most of the time when we let him in we just love on him and let him do what he wants. Sometimes he will get up on the coutch and sit with us and other he will just go an lay down somewhere and stay there untill we take him back out.

[puregame]

Well here are three things to try:

1. Try letting him watch you work other dogs. Don't work with him the first few times just let him watch. Dogs will learn from each other.

2. You said he's mostly an outside dog right?? only take him off his chain to work (rope tug, fetch, flirt pole, whatever) He'll start to look forward to working. It's becomes like a reward.

3. Let your pup be a pup and give him some more time. Some dogs mature later and some are lazyer than others ;) . I waited on my male untill he was about 15 months old.

** Now if by chance you do get your dog to start working. You want it to be a very positive experience. Use his favorite treats for rewards or cut up hotdogs (most dogs are ****ers for hotdogs.) You want to keep his training sessions short, like 10min, you don't want him to get bored with it because then he won't want to do it at all. I wouldn't work him more than 2 ten minute sessions a day. Now in my opinion this is very important, when you do get him to work the flirt pole, take it away before he gets tired of it. When he gets really into it take him and put him back on the chain. That will start to build up his drive.

Good luck with your pup. If you have any questions let me know.

puregame

[CRG]

that is great advice lilred

[puregame]

that is great advice lilred
Always glad to help when I can ;) .

puregame

[Redtail74]

Thanx man. He's watched the other dogs work some already. I'll give him more time to grow as he's just now 11 months old.

[Pit Bull Pride]

Five-Oh, when she was a pup, wanted NOTHING to do with toys, ropes, anything. After watching the other dogs on the flirt/spring pole, as she got older, she really started gettin into it, now she LOVES it. Also, I noticed as our bond got tighter and tighter, she started becoming more and more willing to do anything I ask of her to please 'mommy.' I'm actually getting ready to start training her for weigh-pull. Just my personal experience.

[FrankDublin]

how is the pup bred

Ive seen some so tight that they were almost terrified at the presance of humans

but soon as its just the dogs in the back you can look out the window and it would run and play

but soon as I would come out side it would run back in its dog house

even a feeding time

she came to my daughter though

a moonshine/colorboy female

[Pipbull]

I'm sure each dog is different, but I have a friend who's dog just didn't want to work. She was overweight for a while, so I'm sure that she got used to not being very active, but she was still not into a springpole or fetch or anything. What worked with her is kind of getting her excited about chasing something. I have my friend hold her by the collar while I had a flirtpole a little distance away. Just quickly darted it back and forth to get her attention and teased her with it. Finally, I got it close to her, he let her go, and she grabbed it and I tugged just a little. Then just worked on building it up more and more from there, and now she's a spazz for it.

Having them chase you rather than trying to force it is a lot of help. And holding the dog back from being able to immediately grab it helps get them fired up.

[AGK]

Never really had this kind of a problem before, if the dog wont work we show it another dog (like when on the mill) and the problem will usually correct itself, mirrors work well to, but this is only good for mills and road work I don't know what you would do to get them into the spring or flirt poles (something flavorable on the end of the pole perhaps?), I've never had that problem before. But we did have one that got lazy 3/4 of the way through a keep when running a mill so we did just what I wrote and the problem went away, he ran it full go till we took him off it....lol I think sometimes they just need a little bit of incentive to do certian things they feel they don't want to do. What works for my dogs may not work for yours, it's really trial and error as far as what will grab your dogs attention enough to get them started, once started praise will usually get them to keep it up.

[Pipbull]

Never really had this kind of a problem before, if the dog wont work we show it another dog (like when on the mill) and the problem usually corrected itself, mirrors work well to, but this is only good for mills and road work I don't know what you would do to get them into the spring or flirt poles, I've never had that problem before. But we did have one that got lazy 3/4 of the way through a keep when running a mill so we did just what I wrote and the problem went away, he ran it full go till we took him off it....lol

lol, funny you should say that, but that kind of worked with one of my dogs. I had tried to get him interested in weight pull a few times, but he never had any interest. But I gave it another shot, and he started pulling like hell. No barking or anything, just determined, and I'm think how awesome this is that he's doing a good job. Then he gets to the end of the track and I find out that some guy brought his dog up behind me without me noticing, and my boy turns into his ape**** self once he gets to me. lol

[rallyracer]

.......p-u-p-p-y

[Jelet]

Let's focus less on the who and when the OP was made and more on the subject matter of the thread. How do you get a dog to start to work? How do you get a dog to work the mouth when it seems not interested in springpoles, etc? How do you entice a dog to run instead of trot about?...lol How do you push the dog to give its all instead of relaxing when it starts getting tire?

Feel free to develop this thread within the scope of the topic.:D
This is what I do. I have my dog on a leash about 50 feet away from the springpole. Then I have somebody else move the "Bait" on the springpole around to pump my dog up. I let my dog get "frustrated" for 30 seconds, then set him loose. I do this to make the springpole seem more interesting for the dog. Also, I remember when my dog would not chase the flirt pole. I guess he was getting bored of it or he could of been afraid of it because I think the cowhide on the flirtpole hit him in the eye by accident.. because he always liked the flirtpole then all of a sudden didnt play with it no more. So I told my dog to "sit". Then I took the cowhide(which was attached to the flirtpole) and I rubbed it all over his teeth and tongue, so that he gets the "flavor" of it. And then I said good boy and he started to like the flirt pole again. I guess he forgot how good the cowhide taste or something.

This is what I do and works perfectly fine.

Just move the flirt pole or spring pole around to "tease" your dog for a minute or two. Then set him or her loose when first introducing the dog to these exercises.

[AGK]

Thanks rally, I missed the age completly.

[briarpatch]

Building confidence is key. Find something he likes to put his mouth on..puppies love stinky old socks. try that ..put it on a flirt and tease him real slow with it. try to get him interested, then when he takes it let em have it...he's won that round..next time tug with him a little..when he pulls back against ya good..let em have it...alot of dogs, espcially young arent confident at all about their mouths. like others have said....tie him up or kennel him where he can see a big dog work. thats how i start pups learnin how to catch. pen em up next to the catch pen and put mama in there to work. they pick up quick quick:cool:

[TNK]

The simplest form of workable "drive" is fetch,the dog has obviously been mishandled and by the sounds of it "still is".(no progress made):o

You must establish a plan(what will this dogs job be?)
Start from square one,in dog terms and that is "pack order"
If your dog doesn't respect you as the leader of the pack it will never
be willing to work "for you".

A pack leader must be fair and never over bearing,forced submission
is never good. Tricking a dog to work will play out later in life when you have a dog you cant control.(Dogs are much worse then women,they never forget "any" of the bad things you do):p

Do you have a "Working Dog" Kennel in your area?
A small investment with a reputable source in this field will pay out in a big way once some ground rules are set and the handler keeps consistent in work ethics.
Handlers generally need more training then the dog(s):eek:

If your interested I can show you where to look,just drop me a PM.