I did not want to hijacked some else's thread on a peeing issue but I had to smile at Tammy's reply on Tasha and Kooza's food motivation training!
Tammy mentioned making crate-training fun!
I would also suggest making the crate a fun place and safe zone. I have this DVD and highly recommend it. Tasha is the one I used this method on and she loves her crate.
She is almost always in a panic to get to it, when dinner or treat time comes. She also automatically runs to it, when she knows I'm leaving and lays down in it. I can tell her "Go Crate" from anywhere in the house and she will run to it. She'd stay in it all day with the door open or closed.... love this technique and practice.
Susan garett's "Crate Games"
http://www.clickerdogs.com/crate_games.phpahhhhhhhhhh Kooza probably inherited this from mommy too.
He goes WILD as soon as he sees a treat coming or his food (I feed him in his crate when Nuuk is around or he'd never eat poor puppy). And he is sooooo fast that he slides all the way when he slams on the breaks and a few times hit his face on the closed door because he was too excited to check things out first. hihi
As a matter of fact, I should videotape his crate runs. Hilarious.
Lol! Yep... he got it from me feeding him in the Puppy Pen 2x a day. We'd all be in the kitchen at meal time and everyone would go run to their area, when I say "Let's eat". He learned real quick (smart boy he is) that if he wanted his food he had to run to the Puppy Pen and sit. Him and his mom are very food motivated and they both would beat me to the crate or pen. LoL! I know what you mean when you say he rams the door. I always had to make sure it was clear path or he'd bulldoze anything in his way. LoL!
To get into the Puppy Pen was a ramp, but during these meal times, he'd never even hit the ramp.. it was "FLY" in to the opening. Thank goodness the door was always open. Lol!
Food motivated you said!! He's even hard to "train" because as soon as a treat comes out, he can shake like a leaf, his butt can barely touch the ground in expectation of something. If he was just a tiny wee-bit less food-motivated he may be able to calm down some so I can get an even better attention span. You should also see him coming from the outside (after a pee) in the evening. I don't know where he got the idea that he'd get a treat for this but he runs to the grooming room and waits by the grooming table (where all the treat bags are). He just sits there and wiggles in the hope that something would fall on the ground. He's just too much. So I cave in sometimes (yeah! He knows how to get to me and wins!) and they all get a treat for a trick in return. But he only does that in the evenings. Never during the day.
I really have to videotape those moments as he may stop doing them when he grows up.
But working with him is just simple pleasure as he is a fast one to catch on most things (but the "stand" command has been a challenge all week). He just can't go from sit to stand without losing his marbles because food is sooooooo far from his mouth and he has to have it NOW. He must hate me so much when I say "Wait, Kooza wait, wait, wait" hihi
Nuuk is also food motivated but if she did it once, her job is job and the Diva does not see why she'd have to do it all over again many times. Takoda will do all tricks at once, get his treat and go on with his life. But Kooza...wouhhhhh! There are never enough treats on the planet to satisfy his interior needs. hihi
So how are yours and are they as much food motivated as Kooza can be?
