Episode #272 When Your Puppy Won't Take Treats

Struggling with a puppy who isn’t motivated by food? You’re not alone—and you’re not stuck. In this episode, Amy from BAXTER & Bella breaks down why food motivation can vary, especially during the early days of bringing a new puppy home when stress levels are high. You’ll learn how to use your puppy’s regular food as an effective training tool, safely introduce higher-value rewards without upsetting their stomach, and avoid the common mistake of relying on too many treats too quickly.

Amy also shares how to tap into alternative reinforcers like play, plus step-by-step guidance on fading treats the right way so your puppy listens with or without food. Whether your puppy is picky, distracted, or just getting settled, this episode will give you practical, easy-to-implement strategies to build motivation and create a positive training experience.

Transcript

Why Food Motivation Fails

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Bringing a new puppy home is exciting, but it can also come with a few surprises, especially when it comes to training. One of the most common challenges puppy handlers face is motivation. What do you do when your puppy isn't interested in food or seems too distracted to learn? Today we're talking all about food motivation, why it sometimes fails flat, especially in those early days, and how to successfully train your puppy using a variety of rewards, including play, while setting them up for long-term success. Welcome to the puppy training podcast, the show designed to help you raise a confident, well-behaved puppy using positive practical training methods. Each week we'll explore real-life training strategies, break down common puppy challenges, and give you clear, step-by-step guidance you can start using right away. Whether you're dealing with potty training, biting, jumping, or just want to build a stronger bond with your pup as their handler, you're in the right place. Welcome back to the puppy training podcast. I'm your host, Amy Jensen. Today we are talking about motivation and food, particularly. A lot of clients will call me and say my puppy isn't interested in food. And there's some reasons for that. So let's talk about that today. But food is one of the most commonly used reinforcers in dog training, and it's for a good reason. It's convenient, it's effective, easy to deliver quickly. And for many puppies, food is the fastest way to communicate. Yes, that's exactly what I wanted. But here's the reality: not all puppies are food motivated. And again, there are some factors that might motivate that, if you will. And that doesn't mean something's wrong with your dog. It does, it just means that we need to adjust our approach. So a lack of food motivation can show up as maybe they ignore food during training, maybe they spit it out. Baxter will do that sometimes. He's pretty picky. He has to test it and taste it and smell it. And if he doesn't like it, he spits it out. Uh maybe it's being more interested in the environment than the reward. If you take a dog outside, I guarantee smells, birds, squirrels, leaves, you name it, uh, can be more interesting to your puppy. So we we hear about that one too, and we experience that ourselves. Um, but also responding when the very best foods are offered. So maybe they only respond if the good stuff comes out. And dogs are very smart and aware of this. Okay. They know if I wait, I hold out a little bit, she's gonna get something better. So what's going on? Sometimes it's just as simple as your puppy's not hungry. Other times the environment is too distracting or the food just isn't high value enough. And sometimes it's a combination. So if you've just brought home a new puppy, this piece is important to listen to because your puppy has just experienced a massive life change. They've left their mom, their litter mates, everything familiar to them. Even in the best situations, their stress levels are high. And when stress is high, appetite and motivation go way down. Okay? So if your brand new puppy isn't interested in food yet, don't panic. That's actually very normal. I want you to give them time to decompress. I want you to focus on helping them feel safe, predictable, and comfortable in their new environment. We want to keep things calm, keep routines consistent. We're just starting to build a schedule for them and to build a routine. We want to keep um outside influences to a minimum. So don't bring in outside stressors or people right away to, you know, add to the stress. We want to just let your puppy settle in and lower your expectations in those first few days. So we're not going to jump right into sit down, stay and come, okay? We're going to build a relationship, build some trust, let your puppy relax in their new environment, and just let those stress levels come down. As their confidence grows, you'll often see their interest in food and training starts to increase naturally. Now let's talk practical strategies. First, use what you're already feeding. So people will say, Well, what food reward should I get? What treat should I buy? And I tell them, just start simply. At Baxter and Bella, our go-to training reward is your puppy's regular food. It's balanced, it's consistent, it prevents overfeeding. If your puppy needs a little extra encouragement, you can always make their food more exciting by adding a higher value option. I like to take a meal mixer, it's just a little piece of freeze-dried meat, and I crumble it right into the kibble, and then that adds a little bit of a pill without completely changing their diet. Now, here's another important tip: you do not need to go out and buy a bunch of different treats. In fact, if you introduce too many new foods too quickly, you're going to have a sick puppy, and we don't want that. They're going to have an upset stomach. So think of your puppy like a baby. We want to introduce new foods slowly. We're going to aim for one new item every four to five days if needed, depending on how your puppy handles it. So this will help you monitor for sensitivities and keeps their digestive systems happy. Now, next, we want to check your timing and environment. So training before meals, I like to use my puppy's meal as the rewards. So I'll do the training before ever putting food down in a bowl. And then when the puppy is naturally a bit hungrier and we this works well, and then we can start in a low distraction space. So outside in your backyard might be too hard to use their food, but inside in a quiet space with not a lot happening, oftentimes it'll work great, especially when they first come to you. They do not need higher value food rewards. Most likely if they're not, quote, food motivated in the beginning, it's because those stress levels are high. So we can just wait a few days. That's fine. We can work on other things. Now, we also want to keep training sessions short and fun. Sometimes it's not about the food, it's about the delivery, right? It might be too boring in my training or too robotic. Puppies get bored pretty quickly. They're like toddlers with very short attention spans. So try to make it more fun, try to make it interactive, try to make it quick. Puppies love that kind of stuff. Now, if food still isn't doing the trick, let's expand your toolkit. Reinforcement is anything your puppy finds rewarding. And for many dogs, that's play. I say play is powerful. If your puppy loves to chase, tug, or interact with you, we can use that as rewards. So I ask for a behavior like a sit and then I reward with a quick game. Maybe I toss their favorite toy or I engage in a little tug or I move with them in an exciting way. If you guys haven't tried hide and seek with your puppies, that's pretty fun. You could actually ask them for a sit and you could run and hide and let them come find you. Now, this is especially helpful for high-energy puppies, puppies who are adjusting to a new home, like we talked about, or dogs who are more relationship-driven than food-driven. Some dogs just love your praise and attention. That's what they crave. So recognize that and you'll start to learn that as your puppy lives with you longer and longer. You'll start to learn what they like and what they prefer, and you can use those as rewards. We call them life rewards. Things like I see my puppy wants to go outside. They want me to open that door. I can actually ask for behavior and do a little training session right there for some good behavior and then open the door as the reward. And we teach you how to do that in our intermediate training program. So if you need help with that, don't worry. We have you covered. So just keep play structured and brief. You want it to feel like a reward. You want it to be fun and game-like, not a distraction that derails training. Now, even if your puppy is food motivated, the goal isn't to rely on food forever. Um, in fact, a lot of people get in trouble where they are showing their dog the food like a bribe, and then their dog only does things because they see you have food. So we do use what's called luring, meaning I show my puppy food and I lure them into a sit, or I lure them into a down, or I lure them into a spin. But once I've taught that behavior, maybe five, 10 repetitions, I'm actually hiding the food. It's going behind my back in a pouch. My hands are free from food. I'm asking for the behavior first. When my dog does the behavior, then I reach behind my back, pull out a reward from my pouch and deliver it. So the the cue comes first, then the behavior, the dog does something, then they know that they'll get paid. But they don't have a bribe or like a carrot dangling in front of them, if you will. So that's where people get into trouble because sometimes you hear, oh, I don't want to use food rewards because my dog will only behave if I have food. Um, that's really what's going on, is some people just always have food in their hand and they never get rid of it. We've got to teach our dog that we give a cue, then we get they give us the behavior, then food appears. Okay. We also help you with that in our program if you have any questions about that. So, real life rewards, when we talk about that with, again, like I mentioned, going outside, opening the door is a great one, right? Getting the leash on, um, being fed, playing, anything that's not just uh food, but other things that your dog loves, we call life rewards. And it they learn that, oh, this pays off because I get something I want. Now, if your puppy isn't food motivated, it's not a failure, it's just feedback. It's telling you maybe they're stressed, maybe they need some time, maybe they value something more, like when you're outside and a little lizard runs by, movement might be more um rewarding than food for your puppy. So our job is to observe, we're going to change and adapt as needed, and we're going to meet our puppy where they are. So we have to recognize what is motivating to my dog, what and create a hierarchy, if you will. So, what's the most rewarding thing to my dog? It might be movement. If you have a dog that has a high prey drive and loves to chase little critters, um, it might be praise or your attention, you looking at them and talking to them. It might be a belly rub. My dogs love belly rubs. Or Baxter, his favorite actually is a chin scratch. He loves his chin being scratched. So you're going to start to learn about your dog and they're going to start to communicate to you what they love. That needs to go into that reward hierarchy so we can incorporate those into the training. Now, connection and consistency matter more than any single food reward. So thanks for listening today, you guys. Hopefully that's helpful. I know we get a lot of questions about food and training and how to use it appropriately, and my dog's not food motivated. Um, so there's a few tips for you. If you want more, come check out our program. We'd love to help you and answer any of your questions. Have a great week, you guys. Happy trading. Thanks for tuning in today. If you found this episode helpful, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a training tip. And if you're enjoying the show, leaving a quick review really helps other handlers find us. For more training resources, tips, and support, visit me Amy Jensen at baxterambella.com. Until next time, happy training.