A dog that plays with us, with other dogs or even that plays alone with a stick or chasing the leaves moved by the wind … is a happy dog enjoying life. A dog that obeys our orders when it is being trained, being rewarded for it later, is a satisfied and accomplished dog.
But what happens when our dog does not want to play and / or does not learn correctly during his training? Motivation is essential to encourage our dog to play with us or with other puppies, motivation is also the most important part of dog training.
We are going to see the best tricks to motivate our dogs, so that they feel like learning or playing, and all of this in the most fun way.
Index of contents
- 1 Tricks to motivate our dog during its training
- 2 Tips to motivate our dog to play
- 3 I have tried everything and my dog is not motivated
Tricks to motivate our dog during its training
We must bear in mind that before starting the training session, our dog must have walked and played for a while, that is, it must have flown. In this way you will maintain better concentration during the session.
Every time our dog fulfills our order, we must reward him so that he feels like doing it again, and get another prize again. We can use dog snacks or even pellets of their own feed, as a prize.
This way, every time you do something right you will get food. That will motivate you a lot to keep doing it well.
We must also motivate our dog by congratulating him, when he does something well we will give him his prize to eat him, while we congratulate and pet him at the same time. He must feel that we are really happy with what he has done, so his motivation will grow even more.
It is important to take a break every fifteen or twenty minutes, the break should be about ten minutes at least. During the break, we must play with our dog, let it smell things, run, etc …
So the steps to motivate a dog correctly are:
- Give him a prize every time he does the exercise / order well.
- Congratulate him and caress him simultaneously, while we give him his prize.
- Feel proud of our dog so that he can notice our joy, although it seems strange they can notice it.
- Always carry out the previous steps, so that the motivation is not lost.
Tips to motivate our dog to play
Some dogs are a little calmer than others and need a little push to get them to do things, something that motivates them to start playing and have fun. And for a dog to listen to a toy, we must use different techniques from the prizes that we use when we are educating it.
The main thing is to always let our dog play at will, if you want to play alone with a stick or chasing the leaves that the wind moves, why not? If you want to play with us, you will let us know because you will come looking for us.
We must remember that it is much better for our dog to play with other dogs, than for example to play with us. Playing with other dogs will tire more (will exercise more) and also our dog will socialize adequately.
However, when there are no more puppies to play with or when they simply are not encouraged to play, it is important to motivate them a little. We can throw a stick for him to bring back, or a ball. If this does not work, we can use a toy that makes noise, so when you bite it it will make noise and motivate you to keep playing with it.
We can also use one of those toys with holes to put food inside, like the well-known Kong. This way, when we throw it at you, you will feel attracted to the food and run to look for it.
I have tried everything and my dog is not motivated
There are cases in which dogs do not feel like playing or running, such as when they are older (old people) or when they are sick. Older dogs do not have the same vitality as young dogs, pretend that he is a grandfather and prefers to take life at a different pace.
Sick dogs are usually not animated, show lack of motivation and little desire to do anything. If your dog is young and you notice that his motivation has diminished a lot without justifiable cause, it is recommended that you go to the vet for a review.
It may also be that the techniques you are using to motivate your dog are not correct, perhaps you are using a prize that he does not like or attract … Or perhaps the dog simply feels uncomfortable with the situation or stressed and at that moment does not want play or learn.