Although I didn't set out on any specific training plan with Epic, quite by chance I found what switched him on was playing with a frisbee. I had tried tugs, balls, squeakies etc but the frisbee was the thing. I spent a lot of time last autumn playing with it and working on getting him to bring it to me. His first two frisbees got pretty chewed up because to begin with he would get it and chew, but using the clicker and liver treats I gradually built a solid return to hand. All three of my dogs have their preferred reward method, but Epic is the only one with real toy drive and it is very useful.
It's important that the toy has real value so they only get it when playing with me. No access to it at other times and even during training, he only gets it briefly for the reward period. If I pick up the frisbee, Epic gets super excited but at the same time, he knows he has to earn it so he won't try and snatch it. It is important to teach the dog how to play (the rules) before trying to play as a reward. With Epic, the toy playing sessions gradually built motivation - the more we played the keener he became.
A lot of people here have a toy which incorporates food and play. It's a fake fur pouch with velcro closure and a 'tail' that is about 8". Food is put in the pouch and the toy is then thrown, whisked about etc to get interest then the dog is shown that the treats are taken out of the pouch and he gets them. I've seen unenthusiastic dogs get pretty keen on this in a very short space of time so that might work for you. But you do need to do this as a seperate training excersise as others have said.
I trained the 2x2 weave method and Epic learned that reasonably quickly (inspite of being hindered by me being a novice too) and does weave fast so I wouldn't be wanting to train that way until at least a year old. He was 15 months when I started. There's a thread on here that pretty much covers our weave journey (2x2 - Where am I going wrong?) and you can probably tell from that it wasn't plain sailing and the foundation/ early stages were little progress and much frustration! But we got there and now I working on putting it into a sequence which is another cycle of training. I find that weaving is a lot more tiring for him than say jumping sequences or a brisk hour's walk so I've always kept the sessions very short. Actually there's probably more time spent putting the poles out and away than running though them!
I agree with HopeShelties because I found doing foundation stuff (shaping games/thnking/balance excersises) has paid dividends and is loads of fun too.
But that would work wonderfully on Joe! Throw him a ball and your best buds for life!