“My dog has no food drive” is something I hear a lot. But this isn’t true.
Food drive is necessary for survival.
As long as your dog isn’t dying of starvation, then they do have food drive.
Usually, when people say their dog has no food drive, they mean they have low motivation to work for food, especially around distractions. A lot of people assume this is just part of their dog’s personality and make no attempt to change things.
In 9 out of 10 of these cases, owners are putting food down for their dogs in a bowl, sometimes for extended periods for the dog to pick at throughout the day.
If your dog has free and easy access to food, why would they work for it? Imagine if someone put £500 in your bank account every day… would you go to work to earn your salary?
It is entirely possible to increase your dog’s motivation for food, but you have to stop free-feeding.
Making your dog work for part or all of their daily food will increase how much they value that food and build motivation and work ethic. This is just one of the benefits of hand-feeding, which is why so many trainers recommend hand-feeding.
If you hand-feed your dog, you’re guaranteed to see more food motivation within just days. It just requires the commitment to start.
