How to teach a dog to play?

[Lacuna]

So my little terrier has been with us a couple of month and settled in well. however I'm puzzled about how to get her to play with toys (literally never come across this before).

She likes to fly round us like a loon when out on the long lead. tries to initiate play by rolling and messing with your feet and wants to rough and tumble - I have been trying to discourage her as we have kids visiting and I don't want them nipped by accident.

i have now got an assortment of toys - a King has been quite successful and she has a chew stick which gets some use but she doesn't seem to know how to play with a human with a ball/tug/etc which is a bit sad. I;ve tried to mess about with them round her but she is much more interested in your hands at the moment. Any ideas/tips welcome.

 

[Annette4]

Ginny hadn't played with toys before she came to us but was very food motivated. We hand fed predominantly at that point with her (and the other 2) and started by just rewarding her for interaction with a toy. If she chased it, put her mouth on it etc. I then started to ask for more so she had to chase then touch it or hold it for a few seconds. We built and built on this until we phased out the food. She's now the worst for emptying the toy box to play with toys, loves tuggy and a super little flyball dog.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Craig Ogilvie has some excellent resources in this subject.

We do a lot of work on prey drive, put young dogs on a backtie or have the handler standing still with tension on the line and tease them with the object/lots of movement and rewarding interest/frustration/barking, but not everyone wants that

 

[skinnydipper]

Try a flirt pole with a rabbit lure or squeaky rubber toy tied on. Fast, random movement might trigger the terrier prey drive. Keep it low, ground level, and allow dog to catch it.

 

[SadKen]

I’ve been told historically that playing tug is bad because it teaches the dog that they’re in charge. The only one of ours who likes tug is the old boy who is submissive to everyone he won’t play in a mischievous way, you can’t chase him or he will stop for a fuss, and he won’t try to keep any toy from you even for a game. ‘Oh I’m sorry, you would like this toy? Here, you take it. I love you’. If you want to play tug with him, you have to say ‘tug’ or he thinks you just want the toy and happily hands it over.

Can you make the kong higher value by putting fancy food in it? Like cheese?

I will say our second GSD had absolutely no toy drive at all, ever. He would simply drop anything you gave him. Not interested in chewing. He was a real introvert and was always the same. Sorry!

 

[jumbyjack]

My little dog isn't interested in toys, she looks at me as if I'm insane if I try to get her to play with anything so we have alternatives. She's brilliant with the Nina Ottersonn interactive toys and goes mad with a jolly ball but will ignore a football. I bought her a giggle ball for Christmas, no interest at all.

 

[satinbaze]

Try a paws pocket. They are a soft ball type of toy that opens up and you can put food inside. You can get them on a variety of tugs, bungees etc. they are very durable

PawsPocket™

Our range of Paws Pocket toys in one

www.pawstrading.co.uk