WHITE'S WIGGLY ZACK : Motivation

Monday, June 20, 2011

Motivation - or Lack Thereof

It has been a constant challenge to keep Zack's motivation up whenever we do anything together whether it is rally o or agility. He is weird for a terrier in that he doesn't really have much drive for anything except live rabbits - which are a no no in the ring and the odd skateboard ahahah. One minute he seems to be having a great time doing agility and then the next he couldn't care less. I think that is a border terrier trait as well from what I have been reading. There are times when Zack does go crazy for certain toys and plays alot by himself with them in the garden but only for a short period and then he couldn't care less if you shake it in front of his face so it is hard to use toys as a motivation. It is probably all my fault in the way I have been doing things and my instructors at agility on Sunday gave me some great pointers about the way to use toys and food rewards to try and keep Zack's attention and motivation up and I will certainly give it a whirl.

3 comments:

marley said...: I dussnt play wiv toys unless I can wrassle em off Lola, but that do not be often. It would be great if you could share sum tips; June 21, 2011 at 7:17 AM
bodie said...: If you find one toy that he really loves and then keep that for "your toy". By that I mean this is the toy that you both interact with each other with. Don't leave it lying about for him for his own use to get bored with. He only gets to play with it when you have time to play with him with it. So for a BT something tuggy is likely to be the fave. Bodie is the same a very laid back dude. Now Magoo on the other hand .......; June 22, 2011 at 3:09 AM
Kim said...: Motivation is built by you and not inherent in all dogs. Have you looked at the book Click To Play? She has LOTS of ideas for all kinds of dogs with all kinds of drive levels (or the lack thereof). You can find it free online at http://agilitynerd.com/blog/agility/publications/. He has each chapter posted seperately and you can download them as PDF's. Good Luck!; June 22, 2011 at 7:38 AM

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Asia was a rescue cat. I got her from my friend who is a vet. She is a grey tortoiseshell. I have had her for approximately 11 years and we don't know for sure how old she was when I got her. She had been abused and was very emaciated in the beginning. After a couple of months of recovery from her wounds and a respiratory problem she blossomed. Considering what she went through she is the sweetest little thing and very affectionate with us (not so much with strangers ahaha). She is definitely not thin anymore and is overweight I am afraid, hence the name "fat cat". She is Zack's good buddy and is more like a dog than a cat. She comes when called and always greets you at the door when you come in.

We adopted Molly our little rescue dog on June 7, 2013. They figure she is about 2 years old. We don't know what breed she is and was very scared when we took her in. She came from a hoarder/puppy mill situation and we were told she was almost feral when the rescue group took her in. Zack has helped her come out of her shell so much and now she is so sweet and loveable and way more trusting than she was. She is such a happy little girl and is enjoying the "outside world" I think. We are glad she has joined our family and will update her progress from time to time.

AND MOLLY TOO!!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Motivation - or Lack Thereof

3 comments: