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How to get your dog to play and enjoy toys with you.
The first thing you need, especially if you have an older rescue dog, is patience.
It is going to take time, patience and consistency to teach the dog what great fun toys can be. But the efforts are worth it, for once taught it is never forgotten and your dog will do anything for a game with the toy, which makes training easy!
* Firstly look at what games the dog likes to play and mimic with a suitable toy.
* If it's tug games, make sure he does not get those games with anything other than the tug toy. If it's playing with other dogs, limit the access to these games, make yourself exciting to be with. If its chase, make sure you have a toy that can be thrown which your dog shows preference for, like a soft toy, or hard rubber toy, now don't give him the opportunity to chase anything else!
* Make a list of all the things that make your dog naturally excited in the course of a day. A list may look something like this:
(a) When you come home, having been out without your dog and he greets you.
(b) When you are making up his meal in order to feed him.
(c) When you come downstairs in the morning and greet your dog
(d) When you get the leash out, prior to a walk
* I'm sure you can think of other things that make your dog naturally excited and you should list all of them.
* Now you need to link these things with the chosen toy. So, for example, if you have just come home, having been out without your dog, do not greet him at the front door, but instead walk straight past him, not looking, touching or speaking to. Go and get the toy immediately and have an exciting game with the dog, putting the toy away again, before the dog's excitement ceases and he ends the game himself. Use everything on your list in order to teach your dog to play. If he becomes over excited and starts jumping up, don't worry, this can be easily managed once he is hooked on playing with his favourite toy. If he gets very over excited and starts nipping, then stop the game for a moment, ask him to "sit" or some other control exercise, before resuming the game again.
* Make sure all the "special" toys belong to you, keep them in a place that your dog does not have free access to. It is your responsibility to get them out and play games every day. I suggest very short play sessions 20-30 times a day to begin with
Points To Remember
1. It is useless to chastise a dog for inappropriate play, such as chasing cars. He may well stop chasing cars, and instead chase joggers or bikes. In order to stop an unwanted behaviour, we must teach the dog an alternative behaviour and reward him for using it.
2. Keep all the toys you use for playing out of your dogs reach, these are your toys and you must play with the dog as many times as you can, ending the games before the dog gets bored and ends them himself, then put the toy away again.
3. If you like to leave the dog with a toy/s when you go out, to alleviate boredom, just leave a chew type toy or good marrowbone stuffed Kong etc. Dogs seldom play with toys in isolation unless it is a game of destruction. When you return, pick it up and put it away.
4. Once your dog really enjoys playing with his/her favourite toy, in your home and garden with you It's now time to take this toy on a walk, go to an area which is relatively free from distractions and have a really good game with your dog, then build these games up with distractions, like other people/dogs etc. This special toy is now used on walks only and because it is so special your dog will want to please you in order to get a game with it, so training and control in a rewarding way is a pleasure, for both owner and dog.
The key thing to successfully teaching your dog to play with toys is to keep trying until you find that special one that clicks with the dog.
