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My rescue dog, Jackie, is a great dog. She's a rat terrier and weighs around 23 pounds. I rescued her in November, and she's about 6 years old.
She's happy to be a couch potato at home, for the most part, but she needs regular exercise. I live in a hotel downtown, with no yard. And I don't like to walk her downtown any farther than it takes for her to do her business. But, I can drive her to a great, really big dog park. And I can take her to a park with trails by the river where she can also be off leash.
But, she's not interested in chasing balls at all or any other toys. She's also not really interested in playing with other dogs. So, if I take her to the dog park, she'll go say hi to all the people (she loves all people of all ages, shapes and sizes), she might run for a minute with another dog, then she just sniffs around the park or sits next to me.
She loves to go to the river park, though, and when I walk along the trails, she runs circles around me, digs for moles, runs down to the water and gets wet, and is constantly jogging or running around the whole time.
But, in other words, my dog won't exercise unless I'm also exercising LOL!
Now, I do need exercise, yes. But, I'm finding it so frustrating that my dog won't exercise unless I also am walking. I have trouble with my feet, so although I can take her on a 40 minute loop at the river, I can realistically only do this 2 - 3 days a week.
If I could take her to the dog park and get her to fetch balls on other days, it would be great. I was reading a horse magazine today and there was an article on longing your horse. It made me wish I could longe Jackie LOL! Put her on a long rope and get a whip and make her run around in circles. That's what we need lol!
Anybody have any ideas on how to make her care about fetching a ball? She has absolutely no interest in the balls that other dogs are chasing, even. She is very food motivated, but could not care less about toys.
I did get her a treat ball that she bats around to get food out. But, she's only interested in the food. Once the ball is empty, she's done with it. I was hoping the treat ball might help get her into toys, but nope.
I can take her to the dog park 2 more mornings per week, but I could really use help figuring out how to get her to run around at the dog park. She's not a hyper dog, but if she doesn't get enough exercise, she is restless at home, and becomes food obsessed - staring me down for treats. When she gets enough exercise, she is way less restless or food obsessed.
I should also say that I'm out of shape and just getting back into exercising. I now go kayaking two mornings a week and I can't take Jackie with me (national park with no dogs allowed). So, the kayaking plus walking her at the river 2 -3 days a week is the max for my ability to exercise right now.
I had thought about getting into some type of dog sport (that isn't toy motivated lol!), but I don't want to do this during the summer. It's just too miserably hot to be at some tournament all day in this area (110 last week, up to 106 this week). Plus, I really can't afford to do some type of club or paid training right now either.
I need a dog longeing alternative!
She's a very happy, loving dog, she's not a yapper, not destructive, and not hyper - but I can see that she is bred to work all day looking for rats to kill. I wish I had a farm where she could run around all day long. But, I don't. We need some type of alternative to help her get more exercise, without killing me.
Any ideas? Thanks!
This is Jackie:
Last edited by NoMoreSnowForMe; 07-03-2014 at 12:11 AM..
Reason: Farther, not further :-)
Aww, she's a beaut, and surely a very loving pet. I have a rat terrier mix who behaves much like Jackie. I actually don't really have any solutions to your "problems" but just wanted to say I think you are doing great with her as-is. She looks fit and healthy.
Perhaps the right doggie playmate could help her run around in tandem, I get that from my guy sometimes. Does she not chase squirrels? My dog will burn alot of energy on his own going after them. I wonder if she would chase a ball that she watched you put a small treat into (?) I may want to try that with my dog who thinks chasing balls is beneath him.
My dog also gets motivated by new places, he'll be less active if I take him to the same dog park (or wherever) all the time. And I wonder if he would be a little more active (and less food seeking) at home if I had another pet, he most likely would be mentally stimulated by another pet (dog or cat). I think boredom leads to food-seeking.
Good luck with her though I think you are doing fine!!
Nosework would be great for a dog her age (she's not a senior yet, but nosework is an activity they can do until they die, unlike agility or flyball). The work involved can exhaust them. Although honestly, my 2-year-old Houla could do it all day.
Aww, she's a beaut, and surely a very loving pet. I have a rat terrier mix who behaves much like Jackie. I actually don't really have any solutions to your "problems" but just wanted to say I think you are doing great with her as-is. She looks fit and healthy.
Perhaps the right doggie playmate could help her run around in tandem, I get that from my guy sometimes. Does she not chase squirrels? My dog will burn alot of energy on his own going after them. I wonder if she would chase a ball that she watched you put a small treat into (?) I may want to try that with my dog who thinks chasing balls is beneath him.
My dog also gets motivated by new places, he'll be less active if I take him to the same dog park (or wherever) all the time. And I wonder if he would be a little more active (and less food seeking) at home if I had another pet, he most likely would be mentally stimulated by another pet (dog or cat). I think boredom leads to food-seeking.
Good luck with her though I think you are doing fine!!
Thanks so much for the kind words. She knows one particular dog who can get her to play for awhile, but I divorced her owner lol! A woman I don't want to spend time around.
But, I did find this article on the local dog club's website about how to get a dog to chase balls, who isn't interested. Apparently, it's not a lost cause. This trainer says that I need to act like I care about the ball, like it's some special thing - and to treat the wanted behavior.
I don't think Jackie would care about my having a toy. BUT, she'd do pretty much anything for a treat and she loves to learn. So, I may just have to set time aside to teach her to fetch for a treat.
For future readers, here's the article on how to get your dog to care about a ball:
I got so excited about this - but there's nothing in the northern California area. Wah!
BUT, she does love to do this. There are moles or gophers at the dog park here, and you're not supposed to let your dog dig, and you have to fill in the holes. If nobody's around to give us a hard time, I let her dig, and then I fill in the holes.
She loves it! She has dug holes, going after moles, etc., until she's down in the hole to her shoulders! She actually caught a mole at the river, pulled it out of the hole, shook it, looked at it - nope, ain't dead yet - shook a few more times, until it was dead!
I couldn't believe it! I was sitting on a bench and she was digging away, and I was thinking she's got great form, but she'll never get anything and voila! A mole! Poor mole :-)
And, when I told her to leave it be (didn't want her to eat it), she did! So, she'd kick butt as an earth dog. But, I don't want to have to drive 4 - 5 hours to where the clubs meet. Dang! If I could afford to travel down, and stay in a motel or something, I'd consider it. But, I'm too broke.
But, she is allowed to dig at the river, and I can do that for free.
Nosework would be great for a dog her age (she's not a senior yet, but nosework is an activity they can do until they die, unlike agility or flyball). The work involved can exhaust them. Although honestly, my 2-year-old Houla could do it all day.
LOL! Jackie could go all day, too. I took her to the river this morning before it got God-Awful Hot (Turtle Bay East Open Area) where dogs are allowed off leash. It's wooded, with trails along the Sacramento River.
I walked the trails while she ran around me, chased ducks into the river until she was up to her shoulders in the water, trotted here and there, dug a bit. We were moving for 45 minutes straight. She's crashed out next to me right now. But, if we were still at the river, she'd still me moving!
By nosework, do you mean scenting? I found an article on it on the local dog club website, but it doesn't sound like they have training very often, unfortunately.
Thank you so much everyone. I think what I've learned is that I'm not doing horribly badly with Jackie. I do get her out to the river where she can run around and dig for 40 - 45 minutes, and we do this 2 - 3 times per week. Plus, she does get to go to the dog park. This is definitely better than nothing, and she is very healthy and happy.
I just think she'd be even happier if she could get more exercise, but I'm not up to more exercise myself lol! So, I'm thinking I'll try training her to fetch the ball by giving her treats.
And, the more I exercise, the more I'll be able to, hopefully. So, maybe I'll be up to taking her to the river more often.
And whoever mentioned taking her to new places, so she isn't bored - good advice! I'm blessed with quite a few off-leash areas I can take her, most of which I haven't even been to yet.
I still wish she'd chase a ball LOL! That would just be so much easier.
LOL! Jackie could go all day, too. I took her to the river this morning before it got God-Awful Hot (Turtle Bay East Open Area) where dogs are allowed off leash. It's wooded, with trails along the Sacramento River.
I walked the trails while she ran around me, chased ducks into the river until she was up to her shoulders in the water, trotted here and there, dug a bit. We were moving for 45 minutes straight. She's crashed out next to me right now. But, if we were still at the river, she'd still me moving!
By nosework, do you mean scenting? I found an article on it on the local dog club website, but it doesn't sound like they have training very often, unfortunately.
I'll contact them, though, and see what they say. Thanks for the tip!
There should be videos online that show you how to train your dog - it's actually pretty simple. I prefer the classes though because we all learn from each other - but you should be able to do all of it on your own if you want to.
Yes, I wish, I lunge my horses, wish it was that easy w dogs
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