Each dog has their unique way of approaching and solving a problem. Food toys are a great way to observe a dogs reaction and problem solving skills. Tug A Jug is a food toy my friend Tamara gave to my dogs. It has proved hours of enjoyment for the dogs and for me as well watching their ability to figure out how to earn the reward/food.
Tug A Jug
The bottom screws off, kibble or small treats are placed inside and the bottom is reattached. The food comes out the top. The dogs can carry the toy around by the rope but it blocks the food from coming out the top. So the best way to get the food is tip the bottle over without holding the rope.
Whisper quickly learned to step on the rope and spin the toy around her foot. The food would come out but in the process she would step off the toy to eat the food. Then she would have to restart the process again and again.
Echo on the other hand simply pushes the toy all around the yard, jumping on it, standing on it and pushing it with her nose. All of these efforts make noise which she likes and makes the toy spin away from her. She and the toy will go all around the yard during the process. It takes quite a while to get all the treats out of the toy.
Lyric has the most efficient style of all. She simply lays on the lawn, picks the jug up in her mouth and shakes the treats out. Quick efficient minimal energy exerted and she is ready for more.
Some days, I just don't have the time/daylight/weather to make sure the dogs get the exercise they need to be satisfied. If I have a little bit of time, I hold longer or more frequent training sessions in the house. However, there are times where I come home with just enough time to go to bed so I can get up and be productive at the work in the morning.
Those are the days I pull out the interactive toys. Eating kibble from a bowl is not very exciting so I use use the interactive toys to make the dogs to work for their dinner. It takes longer for them to eat and it requires them to use their brains.
One of my favorite toys is the Squirrel Dude from Premier. The large sized toy can hold a whole cup of kibble, the medium holds slightly under half a cup. Here is a video of Tanner and Shine working on their Squirrel Dudes.
The other toy from Premier that I like to use is the Tug - A -Jug. We haven't had these toys as long but Tanner is quite adept and getting his treats out of it.
When using one of these toys for the first time, I used a small sized kibble and put in some bits of beef jerky to provide extra motivation for Tanner. Once he learned how to manipulate each toy to get the treats out, I moved to a normal sized kibble and using less jerky. I wouldn't have to use any jerky now but I like to spoil him.
Shine often gets a portion of her dinner in one of these toys regardless of the amount of exercise she has received. I like the fact that it takes her longer to eat this way.
There are many other types of interactive toys out there, these are just two of our favorites. I would love to hear if any of you have favorites that we should try as well!
All the puppies love to carry and play with toys. Their uncle Morgan(Lyric’s brother) goes one step further-he sings with the toys. In one of the videos his brother Walker is included. Walker is learning to sing from Morgan but it is not as pronounced.
Here Morgan sings with his Hedgehog.
Here he sings with his screaming monkey.
In this last video, Morgan sings with his kitty.
Perhaps we should all buy hedgehogs, monkeys and kitties to see if any of the Lyric pups have inherited Morgan's talent?
Tanner has some interesting tastes when it comes to toys. The truth is, he is not very picky. If he can pick it up, he will play with it.
Here are two pictures of Tanner playing with his baby doll. I really don't know how it came to be but he unearthed this from the garden. He loved to carry his baby doll around, it was a favorite but it didn't last long.
He does have other favorites. In the house, he likes shoes and paper. Here is a picture of what happened when I took my eye off him for less than 5 minutes. There was no damage since it really was less than 5 minutes!
Outside he prefers light weight things. I did not take pictures of the plastic pots, the discarded beer can (I have no idea where it came from) or the many pieces of sod I discovered him playing with. I guess it isn't a surprise since his mom's favorite toy is a plastic water bottle with some rocks inside. She will even jump into a pond to retrieve it!
He loves to chew on wood and also loves to pull trophies out of the pile of small branches in the corner of the yard. Weeds that I have pulled also make great trophies.
Generally, the lighter the toy the better. He loves to find something lightweight, pick it up and then run circuits around the yard with it. Old 4 inch plastic pots often make it in through the dog door too. Not what I want him playing with but he does have a mind of his own! As you can see, I have purchased plenty of appropriate, safe and costly toys for him to play with.
He still prefers the plastic pots and last year's corn stalks!
This is a post in two parts. This first part is written by Helen Hamilton, the breeder of this litter. She is also mom to Echo. The second part is written by Tamara, Tanner's mom.
Can a puppy have too many toys?
Some greyhounds are very toy oriented, others could care less. Most of the “toy” dogs love to carry soft fuzzy squeaky toys in their mouths. Surprisingly they are very gentle on toys and rarely chew them. I have some toys from 20 years ago. A little washing and patching and they are good as new. Performance people love a dog with toy/prey drive. To me this type of toy/prey drive appears to be a very different behavior. Lyric has the strongest prey drive I have ever had in a greyhound. Indeed it is still hard to get her to leave the cat(s) alone.
She also loves to carry large soft toys in her mouth-she runs to the door to be let out with a toy in her mouth, will run out potty and return with the toy firmly held in her mouth yet I can’t use this to reward in training, she just doesn’t care enough. I use a lunge line like a lure for her to chase as a training reward. I have also seen her run up and down the fence line with a toy in her mouth after squirrel and once a jack. Spirit also really enjoyed carrying toys around.
Whisper and Lyric would often play together with a toy.
Now we hear from Tamara, Tanner's mom.
I love how much puppies love to play with toys. I love watching them play together and I love watching them play with their mom. This is Winnie playing with Whisper. Winnie would tug really gently and let Whisper think they were an even match.
I love how easy it is to interact with them and pique their interest. As my previous greyhounds aged, they seemed to be less and less interested in playing with toys on their own. My first greyhound, Tigger, had a Ty ball that he loved to carry around.
Even when he was 14 years old, he would get up in the morning, go out in the living room and pounce on the Ty ball! He was also very motivated by his frisbee. Winnnie, on the other hand was not as motivated by toys. I learned to use the frisbee in training with Tigger. It was great to be able to pull it out (or even say the word) and bring some energy into our training. I did not have that with Winnie due to her low toy drive. Eventually, I purposefully taught Winnie to tug with me and it made a great difference in our training. I learned that this drive can be taught!
With Tanner, I am working on teaching him to enjoy interacting with me and to tug with me in training.
I am particularly working on teaching him to tug with me everywhere! Too often dogs will tug well at home but not so much anywhere else (just like obedience performances!). I am using a piece of sheepskin scrap that I picked up at a leather store in town. He seems to be able to grip it more easily than other things. I keep it put away when we are not playing together. I try to keep our tug sessions very short, when he gives a really hard (for him) tug I let him win.
When he brings it back I interact with him. After a few go rounds, I put it away. In the back yard, we sometimes tug on whatever toy is back there. He has a nice retrieve and one way I reward that is by tugging. It has been tough to find toy that he can get a good grip one!
The most important thing about tugging with your dog is to set rules and stick to them. The dog should let go immediately when I ask and only grab it when given permission. No cheating by grabbing my hand or arm to get me to let go (this offense causes an immediate and abrupt end to the game). It takes a lot of self control on the dog's part and toys area great way to teach self control!
I also leave toys out for Tanner to amuse himself and there are several toys that he and Shine like to play with together. Actually, any toy that Shine has is the one that Tanner wants!
