Today we’re going to cover what to do if your dog showed limited or no interest in any of the toys that you presented to them on the choice to chase test from the last blog.
So, the first thing to consider is, have you used enough toys? If you’ve expended all of your options, the next thing that we’re going to do is see if we can spark your dog’s desire to chase a toy using the following technique:
First, grab one of the toys you used in the Choice to Chase Test and then some rope that’s medium thickness and about two meters in length. Tie the rope around the toy so that it’s secure and get your dog ready.
Start your dog in front of you and what you’re going to do is to take the toy and throw it away from the dog so that it moves into the distance, as it hits the ground what we want to start to do is to initiate a little bit of continued chase. When we threw the toy out in the last blog it just hit the floor and went dead, you may have found your dog showed limited interest in it, however now what we want to try to do is to get the toy wiggling along the floor to instigate your dog’s desire to chase.
Some of the questions that often come up with this technique are, why is the bit of rope so long?
The reason for the 2m length is because it gives you the distance between you and your dog, sometimes what you will find is, if you try the same technique with shorter rope often you can’t get the same amount of chase or the toy moving as much when it’s further away from you. Another reason I use a longer extension is because if your dog really likes food you may find that if you try to activate the toy quite close to you your body language might suggest that you’re going to deliver food and in that case, they’ll show no interest in the toy and often refer back to you for a treat. The 2m extension keeps them away from you and prevents this from happening.
Another reason for using the extension is because if you try to play with your dog with a small toy they might try and bite your hand in the beginning rather than latching onto the toy so having the extension means you can throw the toy out at a distance and they’re more inclined to bite onto the toy rather than biting your hand.
The way you move the toy on the floor is important…
The type of wiggling motion shown in the video below tends to create more interest in the toy rather than if we just place the toy on the floor and then trail it in a really boring way along the ground, you’re setting yourself up for more success if we just put a little bit of a wiggle to the toy as the dog’s chasing after it.
If your sat reading this blog thinking well my dog’s only interested in food and won’t play with toys at all then I completely understand, our dog Harvey wouldn’t play with any toys in the beginning but over time with the use of food, we developed his play and now he will play with anything, our next blog will show you how to do this!
All toys shown in the video can be purchased at www.pawstrading.co.uk
