Building Toy Drive

[Annabell]

How have you guys built toy drive in your dogs? I know some dogs are more inclined to play with toys than others, but just in general.

Fable enjoys a game of ball or tug every now and then, but she is never really really into toys like some dogs are. I would absolutely love it if some day I could get her interested in playing disc with me, but I don't think that's going to happen if she never has the drive to get the disc. Is it even possible to build toy drive in a dog that has never really played with toys before? Fable has a really strong prey drive (like I have to keep her and the cat separated because Fable will kill her strong), so I was thinking I might use that to help get her interested in toys, but I honestly have no idea how to do this.

Any advice/tips are absolutely welcome.

 

[PerformanceDog]

Denise Fenzi has some books about motivation/building drive. May be worth a read?

With Chloe I am working on building her drive (but also working on other things as well, so my time isn't exactly focused on just doing that). She used to never play tug, but doing trick training helped her confidence, then she would grab on to the rope if I made it seem like it was alive moving it around on the floor, and I would give her a tug and then immediately let go (she won) and then when she was getting good at that I wouldn't let go until she pulled back a little after I pulled, and lots of praise while doing this.

Now she really likes to play tug, she is finally chasing after rollers and she enjoys catching things if they are tossed right to her. Trying to work on her chasing after rollers for longer periods of time, or to catch discs that are flying to her, but where she would have to move a little to catch them.

If she seems to have a lot of energy or be in a playful mood I will try and play with toys with her, or sometimes I will just initiate to see, if she is interested we play. I try not to play for too long, because I want her to be excited for the next time.

Hope that helps!

 

[Samsonyte!]

If she has a strong prey drive have you tried a flirt pole? I have one with just a piece of sheep skin at the end and it's helped a ton with tug drive at least.

 

[krissy]

Totally doable.

Summit had zero interest in toys when I got him, and after working with him for a bit he started even playing with toys on his own. Every once in awhile he even tugs. I never really promoted his toy drive for training purposes though.

Kili loved toys as a puppy but didn't tug, so I built that and now she's a sold tugger. She was also over a year old when I first introduced the disc. She doesn't like to tug with it, but her disc drive has come along really well. For both we played a lot of games where we'd race for it, I had bg parties by myself if I won, stuff like that.

 

[BostonBanker]

I shaped Meg to play fetch with tennis balls and soft frisbees as an adult dog who had zero interest in toys. Mostly back-chaining, literally starting with "touch your nose to the ball". She would happily play chuck-it or frisbee for 20 minutes or so at a time after I trained them, although I never trained frisbee tricks or anything. She'd run and jump to catch them (sometimes even successfully) and that was good enough for me.

Mostly repeating what others have said, but be very excited, make it the Best Time Ever, and always stop when they still want more. You can try pairing the game with food if she likes food rewards. It was the only way I was able to train Meg.

 

[DJEtzel]

+1 For the flirt pole.

 

[Annabell]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

I'll see if I can make a flirt pole this weekend for her and we'll go from there. I know she has the potential to fetch/play frisbee (and I think she'd love it), I just don't think she'd ever seen a toy before I got her. And she has made improvements since I've gotten her. At first she wouldn't even look twice at a ball or a tug toy, but now she likes to play very short tug and ball sessions in the house.

And that's encouraging to know that some of your guys' dogs started out with zero interest in toys as well!

 

[JacksonsMom]

I shaped Meg to play fetch with tennis balls and soft frisbees as an adult dog who had zero interest in toys. Mostly back-chaining, literally starting with "touch your nose to the ball". She would happily play chuck-it or frisbee for 20 minutes or so at a time after I trained them, although I never trained frisbee tricks or anything. She'd run and jump to catch them (sometimes even successfully) and that was good enough for me.

Mostly repeating what others have said, but be very excited, make it the Best Time Ever, and always stop when they still want more. You can try pairing the game with food if she likes food rewards. It was the only way I was able to train Meg.

This!

Jackson wasn't really into fetch... at all. Didn't want to do much with frisbees besides chew them up into shreds if they were plastic.

I've got him to the point where he does this:
[YOUTUBE]6nIGjuLrkTQ[/YOUTUBE]

And actually enjoys it! He gets super hyped now when the frisbee comes out. It took time (and food)... he's very food motivated so I started with him on a long line and super short throws and rewarding him with a treat every time he brought the toy back to me.

I would say it was a solid 6 months of that before he decided he wanted to actually play for FUN.

This was about that time when he just "got it" and was super pumped.
[YOUTUBE]bmUfWXxCD0c[/YOUTUBE]
It's so nice to have the option there to tire him out, too by playing fetch with the chuck-it or frisbee, as it tires him out and he gets a good workout. It's GREAT.

 

[Slick]

I'm no expert, but the main thing that worked with Leo was to keep sessions short, stopping when he still wanted more. I also slowly increased distractions until he was able to happily play despite distractions.

When I first got Leo, he liked to play, but he was sooooo easily distracted. He would stop Frisbee sessions to eat grass and be completely unable to refocus back on the toy. If there were other dogs around...forget it. He wouldn't even look at a toy, and couldn't even consistently refocus on me if I had treats.

I just kept playing with him in short sessions, trying to keep far out of the way of distractions. Then, he started surprising me by chasing a frisbee after a long play session with a dog, whom he was tired of playing with. Then, he started to be able to play Frisbee with me if a dog was very far away or if he had been able to at least sniff/greet them. Now, as long as I have a Frisbee, I have his full attention even if there are exciting other dogs around whom he has not been allowed to greet nearby.

His toy drive (and particularly his drive for the Frisbee) just slowly grew and grew over time. I mostly credit the short sessions, of "Aww, done already? But I still want to keep playing" when I did have his attention.

 

[StillandSilent]

What do you do with a dog who will happily touch/nose/target a toy, but will no put their mouth on it under any circumstances. Gimmick just plain does not care, and would rather go without a reward, even a very high value one, then touch a toy.

Everyone else in agility is tugging beautifully, but he just stares at it. We even bought one of those Velcro toys that hides food, and he will nose it open, but never put his mouth on the toy.

 

[DJEtzel]

What do you do with a dog who will happily touch/nose/target a toy, but will no put their mouth on it under any circumstances. Gimmick just plain does not care, and would rather go without a reward, even a very high value one, then touch a toy.

Everyone else in agility is tugging beautifully, but he just stares at it. We even bought one of those Velcro toys that hides food, and he will nose it open, but never put his mouth on the toy.

What do you do to try to make it exciting for him to play with? Does he have value for a marker word?

 

[StillandSilent]

What haven't we tried. I've played with the toys myself (including carrying a brand new one around in my mouth-I was that desperate), I've tossed them around, I've had parties all alone with them.

I smeared one in cheese-whiz (a great favorite), and he was interested while the cheese was actually on it, which I rewarded heavily, but as soon as the cheese was gone, Mr. Broccoli was a nonentity.

We do have a flirt pole, and he shows minimal interest as it's scooting by him or dangling over his head, but not enough to actually touch it unless I specifically ask him to target.

One trainer suggested a pigs ear on the flirt pole, which he was interested in and played with. Then we moved to putting the pigs ear in a sock and all of his interest vanished. Gambit, on the other hand, was so excited that he opened my underwear drawer next time I was out and ate every pair of socks I owned.

Glitch has some nice toy drive, and I've been making a huge show of playing with him in front of Gimmick, with tons of treats involved, but I mostly get a disdainful look.
I've tried rubber toys, fleece toys, stuffed toys, tugs, balls, squeaker, no squeaker, discs ,and it's all no dice.

What do you mean by value for a marker word?