There was a long discussion about food drive on another forum I am on and I thought it might be interesting to share here.
Context:
The discussion was geared to working dogs and how they are trained. These are not pets (though some live in the house too) and if they do not perform a lot of people "wash the dog out" and find it a pet home and move on to another dog.
The upshot of the discussion was how food drive may be hampered by how baby puppies are raised and whether or not it makes a difference later on when you are training and using food rewards and markers to attain trained behavior.
Baby puppies fight each other to get to Mom's milk bar. Some are clearly more aggressive than others to get a nipple even before eyes open and the more aggressive ones gain a bit faster than their less pushy counterparts. It appears that gender is not a factor at this age. The behavior of fighting to get to the food (nipple) was equated to survival instinct (genetics).
At around 4 weeks old the kennel owner or breeder will set out a bowl with food in it with plenty of food for the puppies and they no longer need to fight to eat. This continues until the puppies go to their new homes. The discussion was by doing this unnatural thing (providing plenty of food on a regular schedule) does the food drive in (some puppies) become suppressed? If they had to continue to fight for food, would they reatin their food drive at a higher level?
The next part of the discussion was training and using food as a reward. We all know there are puppies that are more like land sharks and then there are puppies that do not seem to be food driven. Is that the result of nature (genetics) or nurture (free regular food without work)?
An additional discussion sort of developed as to stress related to food rewards and training.. and even though the dog acts happy and motivated to work for food using markers, luring etc. is that really the case or is it simply the ancient ritual of survival kicking in complete with stress?
It was an interesting discussion mostly because dogs without food drive are most often "washed out" in working simply because they do not train well. Would they have food drive if they had to fight for food all the way through? No one suggested that they should and no one suggested not using food as the primary motivator to teach a dog. Most use food and markers to teach a behavior in puppies (so there was no R+ vs P+ discussion).
Sooo... is food drive Nature (genetic) or Nurture (how we feed them as babies)?
(I think it is nature.. but I have never had a dog uninterested in food).
Context:
The discussion was geared to working dogs and how they are trained. These are not pets (though some live in the house too) and if they do not perform a lot of people "wash the dog out" and find it a pet home and move on to another dog.
The upshot of the discussion was how food drive may be hampered by how baby puppies are raised and whether or not it makes a difference later on when you are training and using food rewards and markers to attain trained behavior.
Baby puppies fight each other to get to Mom's milk bar. Some are clearly more aggressive than others to get a nipple even before eyes open and the more aggressive ones gain a bit faster than their less pushy counterparts. It appears that gender is not a factor at this age. The behavior of fighting to get to the food (nipple) was equated to survival instinct (genetics).
At around 4 weeks old the kennel owner or breeder will set out a bowl with food in it with plenty of food for the puppies and they no longer need to fight to eat. This continues until the puppies go to their new homes. The discussion was by doing this unnatural thing (providing plenty of food on a regular schedule) does the food drive in (some puppies) become suppressed? If they had to continue to fight for food, would they reatin their food drive at a higher level?
The next part of the discussion was training and using food as a reward. We all know there are puppies that are more like land sharks and then there are puppies that do not seem to be food driven. Is that the result of nature (genetics) or nurture (free regular food without work)?
An additional discussion sort of developed as to stress related to food rewards and training.. and even though the dog acts happy and motivated to work for food using markers, luring etc. is that really the case or is it simply the ancient ritual of survival kicking in complete with stress?
It was an interesting discussion mostly because dogs without food drive are most often "washed out" in working simply because they do not train well. Would they have food drive if they had to fight for food all the way through? No one suggested that they should and no one suggested not using food as the primary motivator to teach a dog. Most use food and markers to teach a behavior in puppies (so there was no R+ vs P+ discussion).
Sooo... is food drive Nature (genetic) or Nurture (how we feed them as babies)?
(I think it is nature.. but I have never had a dog uninterested in food).