Toy recommendations for adult GSD

[WVGSD]

In late December 2010 I rescued/pulled/adopted an adult male GSD from a local shelter. He has turned in to a great dog and I am trying to keep him involved in some training for confidence building, socialization and bonding as he was neglected and somewhat abused (probably hit) in his previous home.

Can anyone recommend any GSD-friendly toys that might interest and engage him in play activities with me? I am specifically interested in getting him to engage and play with me - like a tug toy. He will somewhat retrieve a tennis or Chuck-it ball and will bite a squeaky tennis ball, but beyond that, he is pretty much disinterested in toys.

Ideas?

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

He may not be up to a tug toy - that's so interactive and I think one of the harder toys to build up to with some of these dogs, but a good goal toy.

Frisbee

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  My dogs and fosters love the toys from this company:
• Dog Toy and Pet Product Innovations | JW Pet Company Inc. the cuz, bowling pin, any of them - just watch that they don't chew/swallow parts/pieces. There is something about the squeak.

A flirtpole or dragging a rag on the ground may get him excited, feeling up. Also some basic agility type things set up could be good, as would motivational, positive based training classes for fun.

GOOD LUCK!

[Kris10]

Kong Snugga Wubba. Also Kong has a squeakie football covered in tennis ball fuzz that Max loves.
I second Jean's suggestion above about the JW products. They are well made and the dogs love them.

[GSD MOM]

JW products are great. My boy Ace was a rescue as well and we had a very hard time getting him to play with us at 1st. If he brought us a tug toy and I grabbed the end of it, to engage in play, he would drop it and move on to the next toy. He does love a toy we found called the Ultimate Tug of War. They love it. It's soft and has squeakys in it and it's a tug toy. I don't know the brand of it though...

[NewbieShepherdGirl]

Originally Posted by WVGSD

In late December 2010 I rescued/pulled/adopted an adult male GSD from a local shelter. He has turned in to a great dog and I am trying to keep him involved in some training for confidence building, socialization and bonding as he was neglected and somewhat abused (probably hit) in his previous home.

Can anyone recommend any GSD-friendly toys that might interest and engage him in play activities with me? I am specifically interested in getting him to engage and play with me - like a tug toy. He will somewhat retrieve a tennis or Chuck-it ball and will bite a squeaky tennis ball, but beyond that, he is pretty much disinterested in toys.

Ideas?

First off, congrats on adopting your dog Secondly, while I do not have vast amounts of experience, what I found with Sasha (Who had been neglected/abused) was that she didn't know how to play with toys. I must have bought her every dog toy at Walmart I could find and she just looked at me like I was a nut. So, at first I thought I had a dog that didn't like to play. Nothing could be further from the truth!!! She LOVES to play, but only knows how to play like a dog. Once I learned that we built on that. She loves for me to chase her, and get down on the ground in kind of a "I'm going to pounce" mode. (Keep in mind, none of this occurred until she felt she could trust me). So from there, I incorporated toys into MY play. I would throw a soft squeaky toy up in the air, run around it with, basically just acting like a goof, all the while making sure she knew that I was just having the time of my life playing with this toy. She will now voluntarily play with squeaky toys, (she will not play with rubber toys as she doesn't seem to like how they taste...not sure I can blame her on that one), but she still doesn't fetch. One great thing you could try with your dog, as sort of a bonding thing, is playing hide-and-seek with the toy. I put Sasha into a sit-stay, I tell her to smell it, then I go and hide the toy, and she goes and finds it. I make a HUGE deal out of this. She gets lots of "Good girl" and and also gets treats. She loves this game. I think it is all about figuring out what your dog knows, and what he likes, and building on that. Good luck!

[CPH]

This probably isn't as interactive as you were looking for but it got my guy into toys when he was a puppy. Now when hes hungry he starts rolling it around the house lol


Tricky Treats Ball: The best dog toy is not even a toy. - Tricky Treats Ball Dog Toy by Omega Paw - Epinions.com

[Lilie]

My boy (although not a rescue and not yet two) isn't overly thrilled in toys. He loves his Kong tennis ball, it squeaks. He doesn't have a hard bite, and doesn't tear it up. After a while he will puncture it and it'll loose the squeaky sound. We toss it away, and bring out the second one. He likes squeaky toys, but the small ones don't trigger the play drive in him. He'll chomp them and then lay on them. The Kong lets him really chomp with a mouth full.

He has always loved the krackly sound a water bottle makes. When we are outside I'll play with him using the water bottle. I leave it half filled with water so I can toss it further and tell when he's popped a hole in it. He also likes the feeling of it when I drag it through his mouth. (Strange, I know.) I do not leave him unsupervised with one as he can chew it and swallow the plastic. I did purchase the toys where you can stuff them with a water bottle and he wasn't interested.

[MicheleMarie]

a flirt pole! it's a GREAT toy to build engagement and prey drive and it's something you can bond with him as well as opposed to just giving him something on his own.
it's also great exercise!

[onyx'girl]

I would get a two two handle tug


or a ball on a string for interaction and training.
You can order the Gappay tugs/balls from here as well:
Schutzhund Equipment | Gappay | Frabo | Tri-Tronics | CPN K9 Nutrition
You can tie any of these onto a flirt pole if Max won't engage with you directly(first step!)

[WVGSD]

Thank you all. Thank you for taking the time to help me as I continue to help Max blossom.