My Dog Won't Take Food Rewards

There is something every new trainer needs to know. If your dog won't take food, if it's not interested in your high-value food reward, it's either:
1 - full and not hungry
2 - it's distracted
3 - it's stressed
If my dog is paying attention to the screaming kids next door the dog will often find the kids more interesting than the food reward we have.
If my dog is stressed, because of the environment I have chosen to train in, the dog will not take food. Look at it like this: if you are scared do you feel like eating? Probably not. If you are mad, do you feel like eating, probably not. STRESS KILLS FOOD DRIVE.
NEW COURSES with Ed Frawley:
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Training Dogs with Food Rewards: university.leerburg.com/Catal...
The Power of Training Dogs with Markers (2024 Version): university.leerburg.com/Catal...
Training Your Dog to Come When Called: university.leerburg.com/Catal...
Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs: university.leerburg.com/Catal...
K9 Detector Dog Training with Kevin Sheldahl: university.leerburg.com/Catal...
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[@DragonBiscuit]

So important to know your dog. One of my dogs would never take a treat at the Vet’s office - he was always too stressed. I could’ve offered him a ribeye steak - it wouldn’t have mattered LoL

[@cherylmillard2067]

Michael Ellis used the spider analogy.

[@efrawley55]

Your right - thats where I heard it. I's a great example

[@belle_thegoldiegirl]

My dog won’t take treats at dog school for rally. She will take them all day long at home. Shes just nervous. Can I help her with her nerves in these other places?

[@LeerburgDogTraining]

When people have specific training questions we recommend that they go to our website and post those questions in the ASK CINDY on the front page of leerburg.com . Cindy has been training dogs since she was a teenager and has competed in several dog sports at a regional and national level. She was also a vet tech and owned a boarding/training and grooming business for many years as well as breeding working Dobermans and Belgian Malinois under the kennel name Kaiserhaus. Questions posted to ASK CINDY are answered almost every day. They are also recorded in our systems if a dog owner has additional questions Cindy will review the previous Q&As and this helps her give better feedback and assistance. leerburg.com/qa/contact-cindy.php