Rescue pup has no interest in toys

[natelam]

I just adopted a 8-9month old BC, and in addition to some of her submission issues, she does not express interest in toys or desire to chase balls, frisbees, etc... She is very food motivated, and is a GREAT dog but I would love to get her more active. I think she would be great at agility as she follows me everywhere on our hikes including jumping up and down huge logs and boulders.

 

Are there any tips to getting her to be more attentive to toys, or to fetch when she doesn't seem to show the "instinct"?

[Guest WoobiesMom]

I've heard frisbee dog people say that they started by smearing some peanut butter along the inside rim of the frisbee. Maybe since she's food motivated some PB would get her interested in them.

[PSmitty]

Just give her time. I've heard it a hundred times, same story with rescues, and in a month or two, they're toy-playing/fetching maniacs. She needs to adjust and settle in, feel comfortable with you and your household, then she'll play. The best thing you can do now is give her time, space and love. The transformation may take weeks or months, but it'll happen.

 

Good luck!

[Pat W.]

yup give her a little time to settle in she needs to realize that this is a good place that no bad things are going to happen and its okay to be a young dog.

[AKB]

It takes a while- our Aussie Arthur found us in late June (the vet's guess was that he was about 7 months old, so not far from your dog) and he still doesn't play with toys the way our Ingrid does. He's showing more interest, he's less frightened of balls that squeak, but he doesn't get the whole fetch concept. Peanut butter on a frisbee is a good idea- but maybe do the same thing with a Kong, too, because that will bounce around a little and maybe get her more interested.

[mbernard2424]

I just adopted a 8-9month old BC, and in addition to some of her submission issues, she does not express interest in toys or desire to chase balls, frisbees, etc... She is very food motivated, and is a GREAT dog but I would love to get her more active. I think she would be great at agility as she follows me everywhere on our hikes including jumping up and down huge logs and boulders.

 

Are there any tips to getting her to be more attentive to toys, or to fetch when she doesn't seem to show the "instinct"?

 

Try this: http://www.clickerdogs.com/createamotivatingtoy.htm

 

Also, try using a toy you can put food into.

 

I purchased a year and a half old BC from a herding kennel the end of May. When I got her, she had no interest in toys when I first got her. She's now a tugging, toy fiend.

[Aquarius89]

I can take a few weeks for dogs to adjust to their new homes. My guess would be that your puppy has never had a chance to play with toys - so needs to discover them!

[jrhodo]

My rescue didn't like toys either. Turned out she had an abscessed tooth. I hope that's not your problem.

 

Jean

[Maralynn]

You need to work make the toy the most interesting thing in the world. Start with a squeaky toy to help grab her attention and throw a party when she shows interest in it. Do this for just a couple minutes several times a day. You've got to be excited about it though! If you're not acting like an idiot, you're probably not excited enough End the game when she seems the most interested in the toy.

 

I purchased a year and a half old BC from a herding kennel the end of May. When I got her, she had no interest in toys when I first got her. She's now a tugging, toy fiend. /quote]

 

Ditto to that. I got my male last year and he had not interest in toys either. Now he works to earn his frisbee time.

[OffTopic]

natelam, if you don't mind another newbie's input, we got our 1 year old male rescue less than 2 weeks ago and he had no interest in toys at first, but I am seeing improvement. Squeaky toys were scary, rope chew toys were boring, balls were ignored.

 

But one day he went to the laundry closet and grabbed a sock and came bounding in the room like he'd discovered gold.

I took that sock away, but I did get an old pair out of the drawer and let him have them.

I have a kitty toy that is a fishing pole type of deal....I tied one of the socks to the end and started wiggling it across the floor and suddenly I had a VERY playful puppy. We graduated from chasing it across the floor to leaping high in the air when I'd flick it over his head. He loves it, loves it, loves it.

Someone on another board recommended thiswhich is the same type thing, only designed for dogs. I will be getting one for outside play. Or making one out of an old fishing pole, some thin nylon rope and a sock.

 

Once he started playing with the kitty toy, he started showing more interest in the balls and the rope chew toys. But squeaky toys are still scary (he's noise sensitive).

So it really does seem that you just have to give them time (and find the right toy) and they'll figure out that it's ok to play.

[ziggzmom]

I just adopted a 8-9month old BC, and in addition to some of her submission issues, she does not express interest in toys or desire to chase balls, frisbees, etc... She is very food motivated, and is a GREAT dog but I would love to get her more active. I think she would be great at agility as she follows me everywhere on our hikes including jumping up and down huge logs and boulders.

 

Are there any tips to getting her to be more attentive to toys, or to fetch when she doesn't seem to show the "instinct"?

 

Hi,

 

If she's food motivated you might want to try a tuggy toy that you can put food in...Even an old sock will work(just tie a knot in it so the food doesn't fall out=). Use REALLY high value, stinky treats that will get her really interested. Use all the great suggestions already offered to build interest in the food sock.

 

By the way, it's taken my youngest BC many months to build his tug/play drive, but it's getting better all the time-yeah!

 

Good luck and have fun with your new BC~

 

Janet

[haleigh]

You can try fresh, raw chicken or beef liver tied into a sock or cloth you don't need. You can try playing tuggy with that. Every five or so minutes you can open up the sock and give a nibble of the raw meat. Most dogs are suckers for raw liver and chicken.

[natelam]

Update:

 

Okay after about 2 weeks Cali will 8/10 times (on a good day) reliably chase a frisbee or ball once it almost hits the ground or after. She will touch her nose to it and race back when I tell her "good girl". She won't yet retrieve it or hold it in her mouth.

 

Any ideas? I feel like I'm the one being trained to fetch.

[OurBoys]

I hope you don't think this is a silly question but does Cali know how catch? Jake didn't when we first adopted him. He knew what a ball was but that was it. And the only thing he knew what to do with it was pick it up and drop it. Then he would push it around with his front paws. Everytime we tossed it to him, he would just sit there and let it hit him in the head. DH taught him how to catch with popcorn. Once he learned how to catch, we switched to tennis balls but it still took a lot of baby steps.

 

After Jake grasped the concept of catch, he kept missing the tennis balls. I told DH I didn't understand it. Jake has a fast mind and catches onto things quickly so I told him, just out of curiosity, throw it at him fast. DH took aim over Jake's head and tossed it fast. Bam!! Jake caught it! No problem! (Which surprised us since we surprised him with our very loud 'Good Boy!' Poor guy thought he did something wrong at first.) After a few days of catching the ball, we moved onto frisbees. Once he got comfortable catching the frisbee, I took him outside for practice in our side yard-small area. When he got use to catching it outdoors, I started putting some distance between us. When I had JJ join us, I had to start with short distances again but it didn't take me long to start putting distance between us again. Now Jake is ball and frisbee crazy! It took a few short months but I can now take JJ and Jake both out to a large area and play with both of them together. Jake still doesn't always catch them (poor eye/mouth coordination) nor does he always bring them back but he has such fun and enthusiam he always brings a smile to our face.

 

And just in case Cali might think she's not suppose to 'mouth' the ball or frisbee, teach her the 'Take' command if she doesn't know it yet. (She might have gotten into trouble for chewing in her past life and her previous owners executed the wrong punishment.) In fact, when I stop and think about it, I taught Jake the 'Take' command when I started teaching him how to catch the frisbee.

 

Good luck!

[natelam]

It's not a silly question at all.

 

Cali does not know how to catch. She is only interested in what you wave around her head if it is food related and occasionally if it is a toy. She rarely will pick up a toy, and she never will if it's thrown. She may chase after it and then nose it but then runs back. I will have to try with the popcorn but I have a feeling if she knows it's going to fall and she'll get it anyways she'll never learn =)

 

How do you teach the "take" command. Just have an inanimate object and when they happen to take it, reward them? But then they drop the item to take the treat...I don't want to teach them to take and immediately drop?

 

Sorry if that's confusing. I'm running out of ideas =)

[OurBoys]

I have to admit JJ helped with teaching Jake catch. If he didn't catch it, JJ would wolf it down. Maybe if you kept her close enough, if she didn't catch, you could reach down and pick it up. (I would sit on the floor for this.)

 

With the 'take' command, she will probably at first just take it long enough and drop it to get her treat. If it were me, I wouldn't worry about it. You can teach her the 'Drop It' command at the same time. Whenever she dropped it, say "drop it". When I think about it, if Cali will take treats from your hand, start there. Everytime she takes a treat, say 'Take'. After you figure out her shut down point (when learning something, after telling Jake 3 times, he shuts down and won't do it anymore), try not to go there again. After a few days of that, pick up her favorite toy and ask her to 'take' that. When she does, praise her. After she gets use to doing that, try playing tug-o-war with her and her fav toy. Tug-o-war is a good game to teach/play to help them keep things in their mouth. And if you let her win more than lose, that will build up her confidence.

 

Each dog is different so what might work with one, might not work with another. It takes awhile but if you can figure how Cali thinks, that would come in handy. (JJ's the type who has to sleep on it. Jake's the type who, if he doesn't get it by the 2nd or 3rd time I tell him, I'm doing something wrong.) With each and every playtime, even if it seems petty, make it a learning experience. It takes a lot of baby steps but the more she learns, the more confident she'll become. I wouldn't be surprised if a year from now, you won't believe she's the same dog!

[HighDesertSpice]

Update:

 

Okay after about 2 weeks Cali will 8/10 times (on a good day) reliably chase a frisbee or ball once it almost hits the ground or after. She will touch her nose to it and race back when I tell her "good girl". She won't yet retrieve it or hold it in her mouth.

 

Any ideas? I feel like I'm the one being trained to fetch.

 

My Hailey wasn't really interested in retrieving until she got close to 2 years old....got her at about 8 mos. She loved to play, and would fuss around with a frisbee or ball, but right about 2 yrs old the fetch / retrieve really kicked in ....with a vengeance. Your Cali might be too young yet.....

[natelam]

Update: She retrieved for the first time yesterday! She did it twice in a row then lost interest. It was a long fuzzy toy. Today she retrieved a tennis ball twice...could this be progress?

[OurBoys]

Yay, Cali!!!

[haleigh]

You can easily turn her into a ball catching fool with a clicker (or you can say YES! in replace of the click). Before you do this, you need to take about 15 minutes to charge the clicker (or yes). Get a handful of yummy, extra tasty treats. Sit down and start watching TV. At random times, c/t (click and treat). Make sure you don't do this at evenly spaced intervals, and make sure she isn't being naughty. Do this about 100 times. Do this until she turns her head and stares at you for a treat every time you click or say yes.

 

You got that? Great!!!!

 

 

This should be right before breakfast or dinner, when she hasn't been fed yet. Use her firt half of

Now throw a ball somewhere in the house or yard. Go to the ball. If she goes after it, c/t. Do this until she's consistently going after the ball. Now don't Don't talk AT ALL. Then stop clicking and stare at her. She'll be a little puzzled why you stopped clicking. Then she'll start offering random behaviors. If she looks at the ball, c/t. Do this until you can throw the ball and she goes and looks at it. Keep it at this level for now. Reward her with the last half of her meal. She worked hard.

 

Do another session in another couple hours. Use liver treats, pieces of raw chicken, bits of food rolls, anything that is high value.

Throw the ball. c/t a few times until she actively runs up and looks at the ball. If she does this on the first try, fantastic. Time to move on. If she sniffs it, c/t. Do this multiple times. Hopefully, when you throw the ball, she runs up and sniffs it. She she nudges it, c/t! Great Progress! Do this until she runs after that ball, nudges it, and runs right back to you. GREAT job, for training what will be a great retrieve!.

 

Take a fifteen minute break for pets, water, a walk, w/e to get her mind off of training. If she seems fu ll, or unenthusiastic, wait until tomorrow to continue with retrieve training.

 

When moving on, reward for ANY contact with the ball. Nudging will eventually lead to biting, then holding, and bringing it back. Just remember to keep it in small baby steps. Without realizing it, teaching her to play is reinforcing your leadership. You are teaching her that I am the one who gives you your food, who plays with you, i am the one you focus on...not the other way around.

 

After she races to nudge the ball, wait for some other contact. This night be mouthing, bringing it back to you, barking at it...etc. If it is undesirable, then don't reinforce. You only want to reinforce the desirable behaviors.

 

If she holds the ball, throw an absolute party and end it for the day. She progress greatly, and you don't want to put any pressure more pressure on her then necessary. Even though you think this is fun, it is still training and hard work for Cali.

 

Next day...reinforce ONLY for nudging and holding the ball. c/t for every physical contact made. Then once she's reliably holding the ball, run away from her. Hopefully, she'll bring it back towards you. c/t. Throw a party. PRAISE PRAISE PRAISE! PETS PETS PETS PETS!!!!!! If not, don't sweat it. Try again tomorrow.

 

Keep doing this. Train only this for about a week. By the end of the seven days, she should be bringing you the ball/frisbee/tuggy toy (whichever you decided to train on) to try and weasel some food and praise from you.

[ShoresDog]

Hooray for Cali! I just read this thread, so I'll chime in with my story. When we got Daisy, the vet estimated that she was 12-18 months old. She did not have a clue as to balls or frisbees. What taught her was playing alongside another border collie, Riley, who loved to fetch. Riley chased the ball, Daisy chased Riley. It rubbed off on her after several play sessions and lots of "good girls" when she not only got the ball but brought it back and gave it to us. Once that happens, the door is open to becoming a classic fetchaholic!

 

Also, the fact that Cali likes to run with you is very good too, since you like to run. Congratulations again on seeing the diamond in the rough when you rescued her!