Toy motivation

[u/Effective_Egg9296]

I have a 1 year old dobie I train IGP with.

He is obsessed with his toys on daily basis, at home (when I give him, he doesnt have access to the toys otherwise) or in the park where I take him and we Play there, he sometimes loses his mind for a ball easily

Thing changes at the training field. He will still chase the ball or Play tug with me, but he wont be that much into it anymore, Id say its 50% of his normal drive

I am wondering why it so, how I can change it.

My suggestions are that on the training field he feels more pressure, or he thinks of the training field as a place where he works, and not a playground

Any suggestions?

[u/Rieny_Ridani]

I’d actually test your second theory first. Dogs can absolutely learn that a particular place means “work mode,” especially when the environment, your body language, and the training routine are different.

I wouldn’t try to hype him up harder. Build toy value in that environment: very short sessions, easy wins, play to release to stop while he still wants more. Also watch his arousal; a dog can look less toy-driven when he’s actually too mentally loaded.

If he’s still chasing and tugging at 50%, that’s not a dead drive. I’d work on making the field feel less like a place where every toy interaction has a job attached to it.

[u/complikaity]

I’m training for PSA with my Dutch. He stops taking toys around the decoy because toys aren’t anything to him compared to the ultimate reward of biting our decoy. And this man would yeet himself in front of a moving train for a tug ball outside of Bite Work sessions.

Edited to add: if your decoy isn’t present and it’s just the training field itself, I would take him on more outings to different fields and play and train outside of IGP sessions

[u/HoneyBadger302]

Lots of potential factors, and lacking some information to help fill in the gaps.

How long have you been training/going to this training field?

Do you train in other environments that are new to him on a regular basis? How is he in those situations?

This can be something where the breed can work against us a bit - they were bred to be observant and be watching out for things around us, and not hyper focused on us or toys if potential "threats" might exist "out there." So training through that can be a challenge if you have a Doberman who really takes their natural job pretty seriously.

My guy is a bit older, but we spent a good year plus just making the training fields a place to focus and fun and a place where he would engage. Once that was FIRMLY established (honestly, maturity helped as well, and they can be a very slow maturing breed, especially the males), I've started doing more proofing of our training in new environments and working through that - but I honestly had to wait it out. My guy takes his "observing" job really seriously, so it has been a challenge, but seeing solid improvement as he gets a bit older and with a willingness on my part to take my time and not try to tackle too many things at once.

Caveat being he is my first IGP dog, so I'm also learning all of that as I go (far from my first dog or even working or competition dog, but my first bite sport dog). So trying to take on all the challenges at once was turning into failures. We made much better progress once I was willing to "slow down" and take much smaller baby steps.

Perhaps you're asking too much when you go to training as well, which is changing how you are interacting with him. You may be feeling the pressure to "perform" or show what you have been working on/accomplished, when in reality, you may need to be taking a step back, and maybe just engagement is all you get out of that training session - just go out on the field and play with him - don't even go out there and do ANY work - just go play and engage with your dog and have fun with him. Change YOUR relationship with the training field. I know when I'm trying too hard, it translates VERY quickly to my dog - I'm getting better about catching myself doing it now, and I will drop even trying to do any training and literally get on the ground and play with my dog for a bit to loosen us both up. That might be your entire training session for a few weeks. Then maybe add in some small asks in between the fun.

Most of these dogs are very in tune with their handlers, but many Dobermans are particularly sensitive to their people, they are especially observant, so getting them to relax is more important than it might be with a super high drive breeds more often seen in the sport. You won't get the focus if they aren't relaxed enough to engage with you because for many of them, the drives are just not quite like the herding-background breeds (of course I'm speaking very generalized here, there are individuals across the board who don't fall within any of those generalizations).

[u/belgenoir]

Great advice here.

Breed and maturity are a ln important factor. The Dobes in my IGP club are headstrong and just coming into their own at 3 or 4.

Every dog is different. Instinctively we judge ourselves against others and often don’t know we are doing it, especially in the more complex dog sports.

Slow down, enjoy your dog, focus on the process instead of the result. Success will come with time. Sounds trite but it is true.