# What job/training for a high-drive pup?



## Kori Bigge (Nov 28, 2007)

I'm new to dog training and I'm learning quite a bit reading the threads on this board. I have been planning on training Kodee to be a therapy dog. He is 5 mos old, and since reading about different "drives" that dogs have, I am wondering if therapy work is what I should be looking at. I realize he may change as he matures, but I will describe how he is now. When he is calm (i.e. not playing), he is a very mellow dog - we take him everywhere, and out in public, he behaves very well. He rides great in the car, if we're in a store (pet store, vet clinic, bookstores are where we've gone so far), if I stay in the same spot for any length of time, he normally lays down at my feet. Very good for a 5 month old pup, I believe.

However, he has very high prey and food drives. He LOVES to chase things. Gets really worked up chasing toys, etc. Normally during training sessions, I use food to reward him, which works great. When we are playing, I reinforce his training with toys (e.g. He must perform a command before I throw his toy, frisbee, etc). Toys work pretty well as an incentive for him (not quite as well as food, but they do work most of the time). He would _love_ rough-play if I would allow it, but I know he would become too rough pretty easily if encouraged. He growls, goes absolutely nuts with certain toys, but never with me. 

Should I be looking at other activities for Kodee to be involved in? I don't have tons of time, which is why I started w/therapy work in mind. Not that therapy work isn't a challenge, (and it's a great job for a dog to have), but I just think it would require less time than a sport, for example. If he's good at obedience (which I think he will be), and he can behave well socially (which I think he will, but time will tell), that's pretty much what's required for therapy, and I think I have time to manage that. But are there other activities that might be more suited to a dog w/high drives, that would not be too difficult for me (remember, I'm a novice) to work on? Someone mentioned agililty to me before, and that sounds like a possibility for me. I realize that if you want your dog to do well in any sport, you have to be committed. But being a beginner, I wanted to get opinions from those of you with more experience than I on what my dog would be best suited for. I have 3 small children, and I live out in the boonies, so to speak, so I probably wouldn't compete, but I would like to train him maybe even to just do the sport at home, so he has an outlet for his energy, and gets enough mental stimulation (vs. just throwing a ball, frisbee, whatever around w/him all the time LOL). I know I could buy agility equipment and use it at home. I don't know if there are other sports/activies that I could do this with. Basically, I just want to choose something that's appropriate for my pup. Then maybe later on, when my kids are a little bigger, I could join a club and start competing at some point. 

Hope this _loooong_ post gives you enough info to base your opinions on. Thanks in advance for your help.


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## Connie Sutherland (Mar 27, 2006)

Why not Rally-O?


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## Maren Bell Jones (Jun 7, 2006)

Your puppy lays at your feet? Wow, my 7.5 old Mal pup can't lie down still for more than about 30 seconds, even if I'm watching a 2 hour long movie. He paces or tries getting into things the whole time, even after exercise. Maybe he'll be a good house dog by the time he's 10 years old or so... :roll: So be thankful. 

No, there's nothing wrong with being a therapy dog and it takes a special kind of dog to do so. Calm, outgoing but not pushy, must be very tolerant, be comfortable around lots of weird smells and slick shiny floors and elevators (in a hospital), relatively obedient...if you do children's type therapy, you can teach him some neat tricks. That would mentally be great for him and the kids get a real kick of out it. Bang you're dead, say prayers, hop up and down or in a circle, sit pretty, even just shake and high five are crowd pleasers. A good one to start is get him used to jumping up in a chair next to a hospital bed. I need to start working on that with Lily, my therapy dog. Small dogs are great because they can go in bed or in laps and Great Danes are nice because they are tall, but in between dogs have it a little harder.

I suggested this to someone else earlier, but check if there is a Dog Scout troop in your area. You can dabble in a bunch of different things if you like: agility, backpacking, hiking, tracking, carting, lure coursing, camping, etc. If you go to their website at www.dogscouts.com and click on the part where it talks about merit badges, you may get some ideas.


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## Jeff Oehlsen (Apr 7, 2006)

Based on your description, you do NOT have a high drive dog. He will be fine for what you are asking with some good basic training.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Something I have wanted to do was come up with some agility equipment / playground equipment. With Three kids you could have a blast. Definitely get some of those long plastic pipes. My dogs love running thorugh those.

Since my kids are grown and I don't see my grandkids every day, I am less driven to do soemthing like that but that would be lots of fun -

And, I think I mentioned on another board - scent games can be fun.

It is hard for me to remember 5 months. At 4 years one of my dogs will lay at my feet but the other one is constantly pushing toys at me or pacing around the house if he is not engaged in something. It is nonstop.


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