# How to train a puppy that is uninterested in food?



## Ispiro (Sep 22, 2014)

Hello,

I just recently picked up my puppy and she is great. Quiet in the crate (most of the time), extremely cute, healthy, and possibly smart. I can't really tell if she's a quick learner because I have no idea how to start training her!

I bought at least 5 or 6 different dog treats, tried sausage, oven roasted turkey, and her food. She is really not interested in any food. Sometimes she likes it enough to eat it, but not even enough to bother getting up to get it from my hand. The only thing she actually likes is peanut butter, and I think it might be upsetting her stomach so I'm trying to avoid that.

I can get her to chase a ball or one of her toys sometimes, but I'm not sure how to use that for training. It seems too distracting. Also hand lure using food is important, no?

How do I motivate her to eliminate outside (for example) when any treat I give her she just ignores? I try to pat her and be all "GOOD GIRLLL" and all that, but that seems not that motivating either. I try to play with her after she pees but sometimes it's 4AM in the morning, it's raining, everything is wet and it's cold.

What do I do?!


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## nezzz (Jan 20, 2013)

Are you overfeeding her? That could be one reason she isn't motivated with food.


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## Pax8 (Apr 8, 2014)

First of all, she is new. She's just settling. I would give her a little more time before getting too worried about her not being super interested in food. Second, some are just not very food motivated. Best results will be when she hasn't eaten for a while, but some just don't care very much.

If she likes the peanut butter, but you don't want to give too much try something peanut butter flavored or try the Lick Stick treats. They have a flavored liquid (one is peanut butter) that the dog licks off a roller. That way she doesn't get too much at once.

If she's not following a lure, try capturing the behavior instead.

Toys can be an excellent way to reward. But you want to build it up as a really exciting thing first. For now, I would just work on playing with her - making the toy very exciting and most importantly, showing her that toys are most exciting when she is playing with YOU. If she's not food motivated and toys might be her thing, Leerburg's power of tug DVD might be a good thing to look into. It's all about building toy drive for use as a solid training reward.

Potty training is more about setting the puppy up for success. If she doesn't want food, don't worry about making her eat. Just reward her with a nice excited voice, some scratches and attention. I usually don't play much with my puppies just for going to the bathroom because I don't want to get them used to peeing and then immediately getting riled up. Sometimes a potty break is just a potty break. Otherwise, make sure she is going out often enough that she doesn't have to fight to hold her bladder and at key times like after she wakes up, after she eats, and after she plays.


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## Ispiro (Sep 22, 2014)

nezzz said:


> Are you overfeeding her? That could be one reason she isn't motivated with food.


Definitely not. She only eats out of my hand for some odd reason, refuses to eat out of the bowl. Out of the many times we fed her, she never ate more than a third of her bowl. I've been putting half a cup of Nature's Variety Raw Boost for large breed puppies.


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## nezzz (Jan 20, 2013)

Ispiro said:


> Definitely not. She only eats out of my hand for some odd reason, refuses to eat out of the bowl. Out of the many times we fed her, she never ate more than a third of her bowl. I've been putting half a cup of Nature's Variety Raw Boost for large breed puppies.


Try not to feed anything other than treats off hand. Its fine if they refuse to eat. Also don't free feed the dog, that can lead to obesity. What you should do is set the bowl down for 10mins and take it away after, do that for every meal you're feeding. Eventually they will learn to eat like that.


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## Blitzkrieg1 (Jul 31, 2012)

Dont feed the dog for a day or two. Then start teaching with food. Dog not interested? Then back in the crate till he is hungry enough. 

Force free at its finest .


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

Let her settle in for a week or so, she is learning the whole time whether or not you are officially training her. 

Some puppies have intestinal worms and parasites, which will make their bellies hurt, and you can take a fecal in to the vet to check on that. Some are harder to find (giardia) than others. 

Since you have no idea how to start training her, start looking around and going to observe some puppy training classes in your area. Look for ones that look for what motivates your dog - for some it's food, some toys, some praise, but first she is trying to establish a baseline of communication with you and when you think of being dropped off in a new country, that's not easy. 

And of course you'd never stop feeding a puppy for a day or two - that would be ridiculous and idiotic.


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

_Previously asked "Are you overfeeding her? "_
_and answered_
"Definitely not. She only eats out of my hand for some odd reason, refuses to eat out of the bowl"

oh really?

go on tell us more "Out of the many times we fed her, she never ate more than a third of her bowl"

aha -- lol --- so she DID eat out of her bowl . She finished 1/3 of the offering . Must have felt satisfied . 

So . Stop feeding by hand . Don't create a habit , a dependency , which will get tiresome very quickly . 
In that bowl put down approximately the amount that the dog has been eating plus a bit more .

Let the dog finish what the dog wants and needs , in peace and quiet without hovering or managing the session . Give 20 minutes , then remove the bowl.

No treats or snacks till the next time you plan to feed.

Training -- establish a relationship with the dog. Fun activities . Go for a walk which includes useful and desirable behaviours -- walk nicely , alter speed and direction and praise for the attempts . Display proper social behaviour -- get rewards of praise. Conquer environmental challenges -- get rewards of praise. 

At some point where you take a rest on a bench for that warming cup of coffee , or the new need-to-do check your texts -- give the dog a happy treat --- a dried piece of liver or salmon skin . Share the moment .

Then get up and move again . Keep the energy and the happy happy when out.

When you get home , you want indoor voices and indoor manners - maybe even a few minutes for a zonk out in the crate . 

If you come home and whip up the energy , then the dog will be too excited , will want to come home too much . 

Like kids they should be so happy that you can't drag them away from the swings . awww do we have to go home ?

Fun times . Good relationship with you , not the treat or the ball -


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## Debanneball (Aug 28, 2014)

Ispiro said:


> Definitely not. She only eats out of my hand for some odd reason, refuses to eat out of the bowl. Out of the many times we fed her, she never ate more than a third of her bowl. I've been putting half a cup of Nature's Variety Raw Boost for large breed puppies.


Thats exactly what I WENT through! Fritz would eat from my hand, or the floor, not a bowl. I tried several bowls, nothing worked, however, someone posted in here 'they will not starve themselves'. I tried toppers, no way.. I figured out what exactly he liked, mixed it in his kibble, put it down, took it up, over and over. He finally got it, bowl down means eat, bowl up means wait.. and voila, today he eats out of the bowl.
Be patient, your pup will eat. Read and reread Carm's post, very good advice!


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## Ispiro (Sep 22, 2014)

JeanKBBMMMAAN said:


> Let her settle in for a week or so, she is learning the whole time whether or not you are officially training her.
> 
> Some puppies have intestinal worms and parasites, which will make their bellies hurt, and you can take a fecal in to the vet to check on that. Some are harder to find (giardia) than others.
> 
> ...


She has already been dewormed twice. Should I still be worried about other parasites?

She's been losing weight though, stubborn little monkey doesn't eat very well. I put the food and water for 15 minutes and take them away. I don't keep hand feeding her.

I will give it more time and see how it goes. I think it's already improved a little since I started this thread. I signed up for PetSmart training classes. Is it any good?


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

you don't have a bond and you don't have a motivator -- get that first .
Being in a classroom situation will put pressure on you to keep up to the rest of the class. Sort of like a competitive , well my kid potty trained when they were.... 

what are you feeding the dog 

did you say how old the pup was and how long you have had her ?


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## SuperG (May 11, 2013)

There are some training protocols which highly recommend hand feeding....for perhaps the first 6 months.

I have always read many tutorials regarding that the dog's daily food allotment is all to be fed to the dog as rewards while training. The benefit is supposedly " bonding and learning bite inhibition etc." besides the obvious time spent training the basics.

I do believe in the notion " good things come from the hand".

However, I have never employed these methods....my dogs have all been fed from their bowls. 

SuperG


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## nezzz (Jan 20, 2013)

SuperG said:


> There are some training protocols which highly recommend hand feeding....for perhaps the first 6 months.
> 
> I have always read many tutorials regarding that the dog's daily food allotment is all to be fed to the dog as rewards while training. The benefit is supposedly " bonding and learning bite inhibition etc." besides the obvious time spent training the basics.
> 
> ...


My girl is training fed. She does well on this. What I do is feed her the entire bowl of kibble through training. I go through half her food through training and if she does well she gets the rest. If she doesn't do well the remaining food is not given. If you keep the dogs hungry and motivated they learn faster, besides, its not like puppies should be fat anyway so this works out well for me.


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## warpwr (Jan 13, 2011)

*No treat no problem*

We don't ever use food for training so I don't think that should be a problem.

As far as potty training, keep her in her crate then take her to the spot you want her to potty. If she is successful then praise her to high heaven and give her free time and play time. If she's not successful then back in the crate.  Try again in awhile.

Crate time. Potty. Yay! Play time. Repeat.
She'll get it in no time.

We have a dog door so we would open the crate and run to the dog door, encourage her through it and on out to her spot. In two or three days she would run out to her spot by herself and pee. Pretty soon she didn't have to go back to her crate and she would take herself out. She got lot's and lot's of praise of course.

And now that she's in obedience she only gets verbal praise (positive reinforcement) or a correction (negative reinforcement). No food or toy reward.

She's the second from the farthest in this photo on an 'out of sight' down/stay.
I take every opportunity to post pictures, ha.


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