Does anyone else use toys to train?

After struggling for months with training Daisy because she was just plain bored by it all, I discovered that she will do just about anything for a Ballie. Distance positions, rollovers, twirls & turns - you name it, she`ll hurl herself into it provided I let her play with the ball afterwards. Now our walks take twice as long because every time I throw the ball she has to do or learn a trick first. Has anyone else managed to get past using the Ballie? What`s the next step? It sometimes takes a bit of time to get the ball back, but we`re working on that.

I do sometimes use toys with the rotties, but they are kinda easy to train with food, they prefer food 99.9% of the time,
My old GSD, didnt care about food, it was toys toys toys for him, so everything he learned was toy trained,

Although Flynn would sell his soul for food, he also adores his toys and i've always got one with me because as soon as you've got one in your hand, nothing else in the world exists to him! It's an excellent way of distracting him so I do use toys to train him.

Can you start to reward on perhaps every other occassion rather than every time she does as she is told? Is that the kind of next step you mean?

She is completely fixated - doesn`t even look at food if she knows there`s ball in my bag. Even liver! Maybe I`ll try asking for more actions per reward, or varying them?

I do sometimes with Hoki - depends what mood she's in (and how hungry she is ) as to whether I use a toy or a treat.

As for next step, I just expect them to do more and more for the reward, usually starting with what I want her to learn most.

So e.g. with Stumpy, she didn't know sit when she came. Sit got a treat every time until she knew it well. Then she had to do a sit (with voice praise) followed by a down (voice praise) then she got the treat.

She will now do most basic commands (sit, down, stay, come) without a treat (though sometimes I will give her one anyway) because she sees it as just one stage - as far as she is aware, the treat is still coming after she does something else.

Hope that makes sense.

As for getting the ball back - have you tried using two balls? (sometimes the dog will only focus on the one they have, but sometimes working with two balls works).

I start off with the toy then ask for more behaviours. Then build up to leaving the toy somewhere then once they've done it run back to the toy for a big game, then that helps build independence from the toy x

Sorry.

I read that as......does anybody else use toys on the train?

Fingal (Springer) does things just as well for a ball or his dummy.

I do actually! Very useful for holding her attention when people leap on and off!
Thanks for replies. Can`t use 2 balls as I tried that and nearly lost finger! We`ll get there eventually.

Yes - Noobie will jump thru hoops (literally) for purple giraffe Better focus on the training when we use a toy rather than food - for her