my friend has a small terrier, jack russell/patterdale type cross, he is 8weeks. She wants a pup that WILL play toy with her so she can give him exercise that way when he is older and more active! Any ideas on getting him toy motivated?

how often do you play for?
do you keep normal toys on the floor and special ones up?

Get her to wear a sock for a few days and put that over the toy if the dogs not interested.  Hopefully with it having her scent on it the dog will want to play more.

Good suggestion re sock over toy - never heard of that one but sounds very workable :)

I would add that certain types of toys suit different characters too so this youngster may be more excited by something that can be thrown, squeaking / non squeaking, soft & cuddly or hard and durable, a tuggy type toy etc.  My dogs have all sorts of different toys and usually have easy to spot preferences - once your friend establishes which type is most likely to light his fire she could perhaps buy a special one of that mould and keep it for games he has interacting with her alone :)  Progressing from there it should be easier to motivate him to play with her and said toy when out and about for exercise etc. whether she wants to tire him out, temporarily distract or entirely keep his attention!

HTH, Teri

What a great idea to use the sock.
Also try things like empty bottles and wrapping paper rolls to play with. Dogs aren't always interested in the toys we buy. a bit like children more interested in the box than the present within it.
If you leave toys on the floor take them away. Make the puppy assosiate seeing the toys as beginning of playtime and make a real song and dance of them, play with them yourself and encourage puppy. Bless  :-)
Good luck.

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

It's worked for both of mine so far and we are just using it on our 8 month old pup to raise the value of a toy we want to use for training reward.

It's really great that your friend realises the value of play and also that she realises many dogs are taught how to play.

I frequently meet people who just say their dog isn't interested in a ball ( normally these are people who's dog just nicked the ball from my dogs ) or they say the dog won't play with their own ball or bring it back and I am lucky mine will! lol. I spent ages teaching mine to play ball and bring it back.

Last week a lady irritated me cos she saw me throwing the balls or my dogs so she said I should use a tennis racket because the ball goes further and I will tire the dogs out quicker. I said I am playing with my dogs, the emphasis is on returning the ball to me not running away from me to fetch it, and that the pleasure is in personal  interacting with my dogs not in tyring them out as fast as I can so I can get home and ignore them.

Sounds like the little terrier has a really good home!

I know where you're coming from Tenaj. Really annoys me when people think the sole aim of a walk is to tire the dog so it just goes to sleep when you get back home. Dont all together agree with throwing balls as far away as you can with rackets,etc, the dogs must do so much damage to joints and bones. Think throwing it but not too far and rewarding for bringing it back is far better.
Also, i love playing with all the toys aswell!!

Since your friend has a terrier, it might be helpful for her to hear my experiences with another terrier!....

I found that my terrier was completely disinterested in toys at eight weeks old, and it took several months before she showed much interest - despite being constantly encouraged - they have to learn how to play. Now, at nearly three years old, she is a toy fiend, and has her own toy chest. She will chase balls, and may even bring them back, but this is mostly an outdoor activity, and balls are not a favourite toy. We found that outdoors she prefers to chase a plastic frisbee - thrown so that it rolls along the ground (presumably it makes her think she is chasing a rabbit!) and then play tuggy with us once she has caught it.

Really her favourite game is tuggy. Rope toys, rubber toys, and especially animal toys. She will also bring you an old bone, and expect you to play tuggy with that. We found that she likes to "chase" the tuggy object before starting to tug, and doesn't like static games - loves lots of movement, silly noises, squeakers etc. If she is excited by a visitor (someone she knows), she will go and get a toy to "celebrate" the visit, and expects a game to ensue (we taught this by simply handing her a toy when she greeted us at the door, and inviting a game of tuggy).

She loves to be chased whilst she is holding a toy -- I think some people don't agree with this type of game, but we enjoy it, and it works indoors and out, and can get her wildly excited. It depends whether you can cope with the barking. We are very bad because we also let her grab our slippers and play tuggy with them, but she is only allowed to do so when invited by the owner of the slippers. I was careful to teach a good bite inhibition by saying "ow" and stopping the game, and she is very gentle with us (though not with the toys)! She understands "drop it" and will release a toy when asked to do so. We have also taught an "enough" command, which means that the game is over.

We cycle the toys, and tend to leave some in the toybox for a few weeks, then get them out, to be greeted with renewed enthusiasm, although some toys are always greeted with pleasure. A few toys are out all day, and she will grab one and wuff at you if she wants a game. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't play on her own, and needs us to play with her. When not playing or sleeping she has a pile of old bones from which she has stripped all the meat, and she will chew, toss and amuse herself happily for ages with one or the other of them. (Mostly lamb leg bones, and they don't smell because she has already cleaned them!)

She is very playful, and we love to see that in her, and we are very silly and noisy ourselves with her. We also play rough and tumble games (again, not everyone will agree with this), but you do need good bite inhibition and the "enough" command well installed, so that the game stops if it gets too rough.

Hope some of the above gives your friend some ideas.

Claire

>Dont all together agree with throwing balls as far away as you can with rackets,etc, the dogs must do so much damage to joints and bones. Think throwing it but not too far and rewarding for bringing it back is far better.

Surprisingly there is more risk of damage each time the dog brakes and reaches down to pick up the ball or toy than there is in the running after it, so theoretically the longer runs with fewer pick-ups is the wiser thing to do.

I haven't read that article so forgive me if I repeat anything.

With terrier puppies, I often find a soft toy tied to a long, lightweight lead (a house line is ideal) gets them going. Move the toy along the floor and if they grab it have a little game of tuggy. Then move it faster and faster and make it harder to catch. That has kept easily distracted, hard to motivate pups busy in class!

Also, a big chunk of food (something easily visible like chicken) can help to get them to chase. Throw the chicken, they will chase after it to eat it, then tease them and get them excited first. After a few goes of that, put the chicken in a kong toy and encourage teh dog to chase that. When they've eaten the chicken, encourage them to bring it to you for another treat. Then you phase out the treat in the kong, throw the toy and they have to bring it back to get the treat. (obviously not all of that in one session)

It's important to always keep play sessions really short and leave the dog wanting more. Let them watch the toy go away, and then when it comes out for the next game tease them as you get it and get them really excited and looking forward to it.

The best thing I ever did was get my rescue dog hooked on toys, he was SO much easier to train and control after that.

Jeangenie:Thats sort of what i meant, but by running further distances the dog builds up more speed, brakes harder and thats where the damage occurs. Throwing things in a shorter distance means they "jog" towards it to pick it up as they can't build up the speed like they would if the toy was thrown a long way away.

Now I've found the exact opposite! Think of the speed a racehorse leaves the starting stalls and compare it with its speed at the end of the race. The longer the run, the slower the animal at the end of it. With a short throw the dog sprints to get there as fast as possible and skids to a halt, sometimes even somersaulting in the desire to pick it up on the move. With a long run there's time for the initial burst of speed to be spent and the dog has slowed to a safe speed by the time it reaches the ball.

Different dogs behave differently, I suppose!

How strange, my dog works the opposite way. Aren't they strange. Just goes to show different dogs behave in different ways :-)

Absolutely! My old lab's personal challenge (in her mind!) was to get to the ball before it landed (insert 'rolleyes' smiley here!) - so for her safety it had to be thrown too far for her to reach in time!