So I have acquired a miniature poodle. She is sweet and well behaved but she hasn't had much in the way of formal training. I new at training, but I'd like to try clicker training with her. The thing is, she isn't very toy motivated. She's six years old, and she hasn't enjoyed playing with toys since she was a puppy. If you throw something, she might follow it kind of vaguely but she's not interested in chasing, or sniffing, or pawing or mouthing it. I mean, part of her constant boredom with toys is why I want to try mind games with her.
The other motivator everyone always suggests is treats. She does like treats, but she's so small. She fills up really fast. Yesterday I was working with her for about 20 minutes, and we went through a handful of tiny, bite sized treats, and she just wasn't hungry for the rest of the day.
She's also kind of prissy about food. She'll eat her regular kibble without fuss, but with treats they have to be up to her high standards or she'll ignore them. Even with people food. Sometimes I'll slip her table scraps and she'll turn them down flat out, or mouth them a bit then leave them alone. I'd rather not feed her nothing but treats, but her regular food isn't interesting enough for her to work for it.
She does love attention though. So I guess this has been a roundabout way of asking if pets and praise are "good enough" for clicker training. The stuff I've read here always says to save the best treats/toys/whatever for the clicker, so should I be less overtly affectionate the rest of the time? Or maybe just get less excited when the clicker isn't involved?
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