Sounds like Aayla at that age! At home she was near perfect for a puppy, focused and driven for most things asked. Then I go out to our training class and she found the fake grass to be more interesting than me. I tried every treat under the sun and she spit all of them like I was feeding her lemons. It looked like the treats repulsed her. I even tried Salmon crack and she didn't want anything to do with it. (I made such a huge batch and had to toss it)
At times I had to just stand there in class like I had a fish on the end of the line that was flopping around and running around like crazy. She was more toy motivated, but in class it just didn't work.
These lovely ladies have given you some great advice on other treats and motivators. So I'm just going to say that there is light at the end of the teenage puppy tunnel. I never thought Aayla was going to be food motivated, she is now food motivated for the right type of treats. She will take them in any and all situations. She has been in some crazy environments (dock diving competitions, dog shows, farmer markets, PACKED breweries, dog beach...so on) and still takes the treats from me and focuses. She is now has crazy toy drive, which I can use for some training depending on what I want.
She used to be crazy for greeting dogs/people and couldn't contain herself within a 15 foot radius of anything. Now she will wait for permission (giving me her focus first) 80% of the time within a 5 foot distance to say hello. We are still working on a polite hello and no jumping. She is still super excited to say hello to people and dogs.
For her (cause all dogs are different, which it may or may not happen like her) she got into a high focus level around 9-10 months of age. It was a gradual process of getting and rewarding little sessions of focus at a time.
Taking a Rally class actually really helped with her focus because she loved it. She loved the challenge of it. Maybe some type of fun class or training could help with her?
Another thing that helped was building her toy drive. Building that toy drive made little ol mom way more fun than anything else going on. Restrained recalls with a toy reward, down stay come (you run away) with toy reward, all that stuff made Aayla way more drivey than she naturally was.
The main thing, is to keep working on it and understand that puppy brains tend to fall out and they take a while to find them and put them back in so they can think. I wish you luck and she is super cute!
At times I had to just stand there in class like I had a fish on the end of the line that was flopping around and running around like crazy. She was more toy motivated, but in class it just didn't work.
These lovely ladies have given you some great advice on other treats and motivators. So I'm just going to say that there is light at the end of the teenage puppy tunnel. I never thought Aayla was going to be food motivated, she is now food motivated for the right type of treats. She will take them in any and all situations. She has been in some crazy environments (dock diving competitions, dog shows, farmer markets, PACKED breweries, dog beach...so on) and still takes the treats from me and focuses. She is now has crazy toy drive, which I can use for some training depending on what I want.
She used to be crazy for greeting dogs/people and couldn't contain herself within a 15 foot radius of anything. Now she will wait for permission (giving me her focus first) 80% of the time within a 5 foot distance to say hello. We are still working on a polite hello and no jumping. She is still super excited to say hello to people and dogs.
For her (cause all dogs are different, which it may or may not happen like her) she got into a high focus level around 9-10 months of age. It was a gradual process of getting and rewarding little sessions of focus at a time.
Taking a Rally class actually really helped with her focus because she loved it. She loved the challenge of it. Maybe some type of fun class or training could help with her?
Another thing that helped was building her toy drive. Building that toy drive made little ol mom way more fun than anything else going on. Restrained recalls with a toy reward, down stay come (you run away) with toy reward, all that stuff made Aayla way more drivey than she naturally was.
The main thing, is to keep working on it and understand that puppy brains tend to fall out and they take a while to find them and put them back in so they can think. I wish you luck and she is super cute!
