Little to no drive

I have worked with many breeds and so am aware of the common issues however the majority of bull breedfs i have experience with have had huge natural prey drives. The pup i have just taken on is 18 weeks now and can be quite nervous of new things especially when on walks at night.

Training i hoped would not be to hard due to high drive however her drives are very low, she isnt interested in playing (chasing, tug nothing) she will engage for food but not get excited and hyped over it.

Is there anything you would recommend to boost her drives other than praising when in higher than normal drive and waiting for her to mature.

She will on occasion chase (or walk fast i should say) half heatedly after a moving object but will then just sniff it and walk away.


thanks guys

It could just be that she is still settling in, adjusting to her new home x

A friend of mine has a wonderful staffy girl who is much more bull than terrier and is so mellow. Is she very interested in you? She may just be one of these wonderful (and not too common) dogs that will do anything to please YOU rather than a toy or treat? Did you meet parents? Are either of them timid or nervous?

She is fixated on me and is like Shadow following me everywhere. However she just has not motivation to do much with exuberance. It is making training a bit harder. For example if I point at a toy she looks at my hand and not that direction haha

Ahh what a sweetie!! Is lots of calm praise not working with training? I don't know what Biscuit was like when she was little as she came to me as an adult as a stray, but you have to really hype her up with raggies and squeaky toys to get her to play, she's got a crazy high prey drive with other animals but not so much with toys; she gets bored very quickly! How long have you had her? As Saz has mentioned she may just be a little unsure at the moment, what are you feeding her on?

Do you know much of her background from before you got her? I took Daisy on as a 1 year old rescue and at first she just didn't know what to do with toys as if she'd never had any and was also quite nervous and jumpy on walks as if she hadn't been out much! Now she has so much confidence and excitement about everything!! Give her time xxx

All Dogs will look at your hand pointing and not the object. They do not understand Pointing initially, so that's nothing to worry about.

If it persists, maybe consider a diet change? I have heard people here say it changes all sorts of things about their dog when they have changed their diet.

I know little of her back ground, her mum was very calm though and would settle very quickly when i went round to view the pup. She was very tolerant also.

The majority of other dogs i have worked with have looked in the direction you throw your arm then if they walked up to the toy if i made allot of praise and interest they generally pick it up but she doesnt even look atm, im sure it will come to her as she matures. She is currently on Arden grange dry food and 1 raw egg every other day.

Just today though she showed willingness and prey drive pursuing a laser pen of all things so just small steps it seems.

We used to put dogs on Arden Grange in kennels to slow them down a little if they were on a higher protein food  It's good quality but we did find it made the dogs a little sluggish in general.

She looks gorgeous in your photo, and big! Is she a full stafford or a cross? Which aspects of training are you specifically having problems with? Or is it just that you would like her to be more playful/chase after toys etc?

I personally don't like using laser pens, i've seen so many dogs completely obsessed with them, and then general lights/flickers from that. But if she's as mellow as she sounds she may be okay with it

Thanks for the reply, yes she is full SBT. Im looking into changing to markus muhle food. Yeah well my previous dogs have been trained in schutzhund, gundog trials and scent work. I was wanting to train her to be a all rounder to some extent, but with little drive this is proving to be more challenging than i thought. I thought due to her breed and experience with her breed her prey drive naturally would be high but its quite the opposite at the minute. Im sure she will become better as her confidence grows.

Ah, makes more sense now She sounds like more of a pet type to me at the moment. Biscuit would love that sort of training, but Blossom (my friend's dog who sounds a lot like your girl) just wouldn't like it at all and is much happier plodding around the field and snuggled up on the sofa, you have to drag her out for walks! Maybe she could be a pet and you could adopt another to train with!! I'm sure there are hundreds of frustrated kennel dogs that would love it    

yeah maybe so, ill have to see how she progresses. I have a GSD that im waiting to be of age which is from high working lines in czech republic he will be imported to be mias playmate soon. Which unfortunately means i cant adopt more at the minute. I cant go look either as id deffo end up with a few. hmmmm

she is focused on me and her drive has improved a little. she will ignore any food i put down as a distraction (even a cooked roast chicken) and will obey her commands. Im only doing basics with her atm to get her perfect at those. At present she can sit , down and stand. she will do it from any stage for example i can tell her down then request her to stand and she will do it no hesitation. im going to do speak next, then onto scent work.

Awesome She sounds like a little star!

Mine is the opposite she is hyper as hell lol.