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Mr. Hobbs may look mostly like a lab but he's never been interested in retrieving. He loves to go on walks and "stalk" lizards (we live in the high desert) but I'd like to do some interactive play with him--any suggestions?
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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I got one of those laser pens to play with Artie. Oh, I had such high hopes for hours and hours of fun. It didn't take but a minute for Artie to look at me as if to say "Yeah, so? Red dot. Big deal. Let's go bark at the mailman and then take a nap, OK?"
I used to play chase with a dog who would not retrieve. I would pretend "gonna get you" and chase him awhile and then stop and let him chase me. I always let him win.
get some plastic disposable picnic cups. Line the up while the dog is not able to see. Place something treaty under one. have the dog find it.
get a long thin rope and tie something on the end and go Fishing for Poochie. It may take a couple of throws abut sooner or later they will come a biting. Anyway ti gives you a story to tell others about the one that got away.
Picked up this big ball and I mean BIG equine BALL from the feed store (didn;t know horses played fetch???) and drilled several 1" hole in it and placed broken milk bones in it. takes a lot of rolling around to get all the pieces out but they will roll that for hours.
I got a couple of tiose round twirly blade plastic thingys (yopu push the dic up a pole with a pusher and it flys away) and shoot them off and although one dog does not "fetch" it will chase it and pounce on it as if a trophy. (bought like 6 of them at the 99 cents store)
Oh no... i don;t mean the animals are standing and twirling thier hips with the hula hoop. I just toss it and use their head as a ring toss. Now when i pick it up, they sort of roll over and face me on the floor and try and grab it as it flys towards them. I also just roll it and at times one may chase it down and stomp on it (sledom do they bring it back) and i try to get them to walk through it. Mine also are not fetchers per say so I need stuff that makes them run and chase and stomp the heck out of it with their hunking big paws.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,141,691 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PacificFlights
Oh no... i don;t mean the animals are standing and twirling thier hips with the hula hoop. I just toss it and use their head as a ring toss. Now when i pick it up, they sort of roll over and face me on the floor and try and grab it as it flys towards them. I also just roll it and at times one may chase it down and stomp on it (sledom do they bring it back) and i try to get them to walk through it. Mine also are not fetchers per say so I need stuff that makes them run and chase and stomp the heck out of it with their hunking big paws.
Dammit! I had such a good visual going, too! LOL!
Funny thing about retrieving. Artie was never a retriever. Throw a ball. He'd run to the ball. He'd bring the ball about halfway back to you. And then stop. You had to meet him halfway... and even then, he wouldn't let you have it back. He'd stand over it, or take it in his mouth, or put a paw on it.
In the last six or so months, he'll retrieve for me. He brings whatever it is right back to me and drops it in my hand. For my husband, he'll bring it back but he won't let it out of his mouth. For anyone else, he'll just bring it halfway.
I didn't train him to give it back to me. He just started trusting that he'd get it back one way or another, so he let me have it.
Dogs are such interesting people. Even more interesting if they'd swing their hips inside a hula hoop, though!
You can buy/make a flirt pole (like the ones they have for cats). I like to run around the yard with the pole and make short quick movements with the pole to get my dog to chase it (or me).
If he likes to chase things (just not bring it back) and you have the room, you could also try an RC. I discovered it by accident when I went to the park the other day, and someone was driving theirs at high speed on the grass. My dog was flipping out and was hopping on her hind legs on the leash, eager to chase it. She doesn't even do that for her favorite prey If you decide to do that, I'd recommend getting a cheap one first, just to gauge his interest. I heard some people actually tie stuffed animals to them to simulate running prey.
Be aware though that these activities stimulate the dog's prey drive, which not every owner agrees with, since some dogs with high prey drives may to start stalking/killing other small animals, including stray cats and even sometimes (rarely) smaller dogs. Always supervise your dog and use your best judgement about what he can handle. If your dog seems to get a little too obsessed with the games or with other animals, it may be time to quit such games and find another outlet.
Of course a lot of people also find agility courses a fun activity. It's interactive since you have to train and get your dog to focus on you and your commands, and the dog finds it fun to learn new things. You can even buy or build equipment to put in your backyard. Some of the obstacles are weave poles, tunnels, ramps, pole jumps, tire jumps, see saw. A lot of dogs find these exciting and almost any age can do them. It's never too late to start.
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