I was asked by a friend yesterday how she could clicker train her dog (a GSD) when he wont accept treats?
he seems to not like the usu. doggie biscuits etc.

I suggested strong smelly things like sardines.
My husky is similar in being picky about what he eats (and much to my disgust he looooooves chopped liver... which is always a nice experience walking with a squishy bag in my pocket! and worse still when we come home and I forget to remove it.. the next day yyyyeeeeeuck!)

she called me today to say nothing (even cadburys buttons,, is the dog mad!!) has tempted him.
any suggestions please.

Im not fully familiar with clicker method to help further.
thanks !

oooh BTW I did suggest lots of positive "what a good boy" body motions and fuss as an alternative and perhaps a fun game as reward.... but he just sat and looked at her quizzically.
( i think we can all relate to that nothing more embarrassing than when it takes your pet to tell you you look an idiot!) ;)

I might be reading this wrong so bear with me. Are you saying that she is trying to clicker train him and he won't accept bribes but he will accept praise? If that is the case, then she should count her lucky stars that he will do it for her without accepting a bribe to do it :D

he,he! see what you mean!!

Im not too familiar with the clicker training method, but the impression I got from her was that she was using it (her clicker) when she trains him a command in conjunction with giving him a treat reward.

now im not famialiar with this method, does she just have to click then and not nesc. to treat reward too?

Just a word of warning she should not be tempting him with Cadbury's buttons, she should only use dog chocolates!!

Livercake can work wonders, though my dogs love food!

Hi - in clicker training the clicker means 3 things to the dog, and MUST mean these 3 things:

1.  You did the right thing.
2.  You will be rewarded.
3.  The exercise is over now, so you can stop doing it.

What the reward is, for each dog, is different.  However, very few dogs consider praise to be a reward worth working for, consistently, and the fact that you say: "he just sat and looked at her quizzically", does also suggest that this dog doesn't find praise very rewarding either, because that's hardly the response from a very happy dog, is it?  So forget about the praise for now, that's just confusing matters.

The 2 main kinds of reward used in clicker training are toys and food.  Until she's found something that motivates her dog, I think she should put the clicker down, because clicking and then offering the dog something that's not rewarding is just going to confuse him and isn't going to make him like the clicker very much, which is essential for clicker training. 

Let's talk about food first...

You say you suggested to your friend trying sardines etc - did she do this?  Did the dog not want them?  I'm not surprised he doesn't like Cadbury's Buttons, because I'm sure many dogs would rather have something smelly and fishy than chocolate.  And, by the way, chocolate is poisonous to dogs, so she probably shouldn't be feeding him that anyway! 

What does she usually feed her dog, and does he like his regular food?  For some dogs, food isn't a HUGE reward, but I've never met a dog that doesn't like food to SOME extent and won't work for it in SOME situations.  What you're describing is very weird.  Basically a dog that doesn't want any food, of any description, apart from presumably his meals in his bowl?

Before she rules out food, I'd suggest getting together - hotdog sausages, cheese diced up into small cubes, sandwich meats (like ham and sliced chicken), sardines, jerky, liver and any other meat you can think of.  Try putting a bit of each on the floor and see if he eats it!  I really don't believe he won't eat any of this - it seems pretty incredible to me....

Anyway, if that is indeed the case then you need to look at toys.  Does he like to play tuggy?  If not, perhaps she hasn't tried hard enough - she should get a big tuggy toy and offer it to him - talk to him excitedly and make all kinds of exciting noises while she tugs it.  Really try hard to get him worked up - the more worked up he is, the more fun he's having and the more rewarding he's finding it.  If this works, then tuggy is your reward. 

When you've found the thing that motivates him, you need to 'charge the clicker'.  To do this, if it's food, click and give him a piece of food, click and give him another piece of food and so on.  Don't ask for a behaviour yet (no sits or downs or any behaviour).  Because first you need to tell him what the click means.  Do that a couple of times a day for about 3 days.  If it's a toy, click, have a game of tuggy, click and have a game of tuggy.  (This will take longer as your tuggy games have to be long enough to be rewarding for him.)  Again, don't ask for a behaviour yet.

Does that make sense?

actually Admin, Ive just read an old posting 'dont boo me off' there's loads of good advice about clicker training there, prob. best thing I can do is get her to read that, do you think?
seems she may not have the jist of this training method and I must confess to not being fully conversant with it.

I think it stemed from the fact she's seen me releasing my dog from his run to the house, and Im trying to instill in him to wait and leave in an orderly fashion otherwise I get steam rollered!

so when he does this in a calm patient way I slip him a beef jrky reward to much tail wagging and smug 'what a good boy I am' grins from my dog!

I think my freind witnessing this was puzzled as to why her dog doesnt view a food reward as something yummy and exciting, and I get the impression she thinks he doesnt display the happy waggy acceptance of reward or verbal physical praise that mine does.
does that make sense?

onetwothree,

thank you that was soooo insightful!
(enlightened me too!)

putting the different foods down never occured to me- top tip!
ham cheese etc hadnt occured to me either, I'd only suggested smelly foods as presuming the most tempting.

Often the dog that won't accept treats just isn't hungry ;)  training before feeding him may make a difference ;)
Make sure the treats are little fingernail sized, that way they won't be 'feeding' the dog and he'll always want more ;)

As your dog loves liver, have you tried Liver Sizzlers from Wilkinsons?  all the dogs I've met have gone wild for them :D

Thanks Dill :) ... Liver sizzlers sounds like the way forward!!

Im no Jamie Oliver, so theyve gotta be a lot less hassle than my home made attempts at liver cake!!
(hoorah!  and no more gory bags of offal to deal with!!)
great tip! xx

  :D :D

Rewarding/reinforcing a dog for doing something right is NOT a bribe.  If it were, then praise would be ;)

The dog chooses the reward, whatever that may be.

It is a common misconception that you MUST use food in clicker training, you can use praise, body contact, food, toys, freedom to access smells etc etc etc, it is what the dog wants, not what you want to give.

Many dogs are more toy orientated than food orientated and vice versa, but you can actually teach a dog to want food if you go about it the correct way.

A bribe = Here is this piece of food and if you do X you will get it.

Reinforcement = do the behaviour which results in what the dog wants.

People who believe their dogs do stuff "for them" are under an illusion, dogs do what works and what gets the result they want. 

For some dogs their behaviours are so self rewarding they do not need anything from anyone else, a good example of this is hunting, the activity is self rewarding therefore they do not need anything else other than participating in that activity as a reward.  Retrieving is another self rewarding activity for a lot of purpose bred dogs.  They are not "taught" to retrieve, they are just hard wired to do it and it gives them more pleasure than their "master's" pleasure!

HTH