Hi wondered if anybody could shed any light on this. I have a 4 year old Cocker which i bought from Battesea a month ago. I found out that it had only spent 2 nights in the kennels and had come from a loving family that apparently had always spoilt him. He is the best natured loving dog i have ever come across.Although he doesnt whine or bark hardly at all,he is always asking for attention and cuddles. The thing ive noticed is that he doesnt ever want to play.
He is not interested in balls, sticks or any other toys i have tried. I bought one of those treat balls, where u hide food inside and that only interests him for a few seconds until he has got the food?
Can you teach a dog to play with balls and sticks at 4?
What could i do that may grab his interest??
Any ideas would be appreciated....

Hi Kat!

A Cocker that won't play, Jees! Sounds a bit odd, especially in light of the fact that he sounds like he has come from a good home, although why did he end up in Battersea in the first place??
He may still be finding his feet and settling in, my Cocker is still a baby and loves to play, having said that he does choose when, if i wanna play and he doesn't then forget it!
The one toy my boy loves and his Cocker playmate (2 1/2) is the squeaky ball, really seem to get them going, you can give that a try, mind you it may drive you insane after a few play sessions!
I'm sure others will be along soon with other suggestions........
;)

Thanks for advice, may have to invest in a squeeky toy next, but i honestly dont think Ollie will care much for it as ive tried loads of things.
I was also worried about why he was in battesea aswell but apparently last owners were moving and could not take him :o( I could never do that to any dog, especially this one who had been part of their family for 4 years.......they shouldnt of bloody got it in the first place.....i think its really sad.
Anyway if anyone else has more ideas on getting Ollie to play with toys, please let me know

some dogs are just not toy orientated. at our obedience class we had one dog like this......if the dog is food oriented, put some titbits in a sock. it will then be more likely to pick up the sock. as soon as it picks it up, make a huge fuss, take a titbit out of the sock, and feed the dog. play tug with the sock. gradually the dog will progress from picking up the sock, to chasing the sock. they then seem to cotton on that this is fun, and you can alternate the sweetie sock with a soft toy, or other toy.

It works too. :D Morse LOVES his socks and it gets odd socks out of my life. I put treats in em, stuff a tennis ball in the toe and use it as a ball tug thing or a raggy tug if theres a few knotted together etc. And Morse patrol keeps kids picking up their socks instead of discarding them in the living room. Hes not progressed much beyond Planet Sock though.

It couldn't have been that good if they got rid of him? he of course loved them and i would say is missing them very much he doesn't know what is going on where is mum and dad are it will take time to get him to trust you when he does then you will see a different dog, just give him time and love.

yea squeeky toys the answer, my dog never puts toys down , unfortunaly she likes the squeekys more i have to admit i did have to de squeek alot of thembecause she would go play with them at 2am .but she always gets the hedghog who still squeeks!!! ah drives me mental haha ah well let her have her fun,:);)

My cocker pup is coming up to 16 weeks old. I have a cupboard full of squeaky toys but he's not really interested in them. Now, give him something soft & he plays with it for ages, he has a squeaky cuddly teddy, a ball with a fluffy tail attached & a kind of rope thing with head, arms & legs, all were bought from Pets at home & he loves them all lol. The squeaky rubber toys hes just not interested in. I guess they all have different tastes lol

yea you could offer a squeeky/soft one. ill tell ya a good one to get , in wilkonsons in there dog dep theres a colourful sheeps head or another one i cant describe it.bella's had three of them in the past two years she wont put them down ,its her fav toy she knows him by the name barney lol:D but they have a squeeker in thats not to loud and a rope pully fingi as ears:D i think i got it for 2.99 or somthing.

My cocker doesn't really play, at least not with toys. She is a working dog and we only use "toys" as part of her training routine and don't encourage her to play with balls etc indiscriminately. She gets plenty of play when with us though and loves nothing more than rough and tumble and a good chase round the field. She too is eager for human interaction and would follow at my heels all day, but certainly wouldn't pick up a "toy" of any description to play with. She will eagerly play with people, or chase the cat given half a chance!

Just give him a while to settle in, but PLEASE don't encourage him to play with sticks! I am sure that a quick read of the boards will alert you to the dangers of throwing sticks for dogs. Once witnessed, never forgotten (not my dog thank goodness). Socks, balls, toys - anything but sticks!

I know she's not a spaniel, but my 11 year old Munster stopped playing at 6 months old, and before that she used to mainly watch her brothers play. She doesn't seem to have missed out on anything, she just doesn't play (unless you're small, furry and live in the woods ;) )

I have a bitch that didn't play for years. Her mum would remove any toys that were left with the litter. It wasn't until the next litter, several years later, that she relented and toys could stay, and the older girl learned what they were for.

Odd things, dogs.
:)

Thanks for all the advice, the response from jacky was very interesting, my cocker sounds exactly like hers......he loves chasing and a bit of ruff and tumble but no toys. Thats good news to hear, i now realise i dont have to worry about it to much. Whats wrong though with trying to teach a dog to fetch sticks?? I havent heard anything about that?

It's surprisingly common for dogs to seriously injure themselves fetching sticks - my own labrador had to have a 2" long splinter removed from the back of her throat when she caught the stick awkwardly. Some dogs have even run too fast onto the stick and pierced their throats and died.

oh right, i see now.......sort of obvious
i have tried throwing him a few sticks before, but the only time he moves is if another dog runs to get the stick. One time he spent half an hour chasing a dog back and forwards that was playing ball. It was quite amusing :-)

yup sticks are a bad idea, my freind called me when her dog wouldent stop pawing at his mouth, so i went round and sure enough there was a stick stuck on the roof of his mouth fortunaly it was quite loose and we were able to remove it easily.:) please dont let your dogs have sticks it could quite easy of been stuck in his throat, get a toy and throw it:D you can get those long rubbery things;)