Dog Toys –
A Serious Subject!

By the way, if you’re not sure which toy your dog would like, you can click here to see a load of them.

Then you have the cuddly dogs, who want to love their dog toys, and carry them around with them. Since my children have grown out of them, the dogs have inherited all their cuddly toys.

My whippet will take a teddy bear, snuggle up with it on her bed, then drape her chin over it, very fetchingly! She has a very soft nature, and this behavior is not in any way problematic, but such “trophying”, as it’s called, of dog toys, can lead to problems of dominance or even aggression in some dogs.

The reason is that they are treating the toy as they would treat a kill in the wild. They would bring it back to the lair for their own consumption, and only when they finished would selected other animals be allowed to have some. This behavior can be strong in some dogs, and you can just imagine what happens when, say, a child goes to pick up a toy from the dog’s bed … it can lead to a bite, possible litigation and destruction of the dog – and at the very least, misery all round.

It’s easy to pick up on this behavior with dog toys while the dog is still a pup, and change it by simply “owning” all the dog toys yourself. You own the toys, and you let the dog play with them on your terms, collecting them up again after use and putting them away.

To learn more about this surprisingly simple way of altering undesirable, potentially aggressive, behavior, take a look at this remarkable book. The author seems able to see into the dog’s mind and understand how he thinks.

Dog Toys as a Dog Training Aid

But it’s in competition Obedience training that toys can really come into their own. Go to an Obedience Show and you’ll see dog toys being used in many different ways. Watch how the top trainers use them – sometimes they are rewarding quiet behavior, sometimes exciting the dog deliberately, and they always use them to get attention from their dog. In top level Obedience, the handler and dog move as one, so concentration from the dog is an essential ingredient.

And, of course, it’s fun! No point in doing all that dog training if you don’t both enjoy it.

A dog toy can be anything you choose, and some of the top handlers will just use their lead as an effective toy. But if you want something purpose-built for the job, I’ve found a great selection of dog toys for you. There are cuddly toys for the softies and squeaky toys for the psychopaths.

Then there are balls, and some phenomenal ball-launching toys – one of them can actually be worked by the dog himself. So if you have a ball-freak, he’s going to think he’s died and gone to heaven if you get him this!

There are also some toys which are specially designed to amuse dogs who might suffer from boredom if they’re left alone a lot. They can either simply chew them, or they can push them around with their nose and gradually get out all the treats you have stuffed in before going out.

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