How Easy Is It?

Years ago I asked a famous dog trainer for her opinion of some potential new dog toys. Her comments were generally favorable with the exception of one toy, which she labeled ugly and generally useless. The instant she uttered those words her dog escaped his crate, grabbed the dog toy and refused to let go. His ardor for that toy was so strong the trainer insisted I give her that prototype for her terrier. It’s no wonder the rest of us occasionally make poor choices. But if even the experts can’t tell, how are you supposed to know?

It’s Not About Looks

The lesson of the famous trainer story is, don’t pick a dog toy on looks, or “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”. Years later, Genuine Dog Gear is still making that toy. We call it the “Jitterbug Tug” in the Fleece Toys category. And yes, it may be ugly, but no, it’s not useless. With a little understanding of doggie ‘hard wiring’ and some personal observation you can make a great choice for your dog.

Sense Stimulators

Dogs will play with toys that stimulate their natural senses. I call them sense stimulators and there are four: sight, bite, sound and smell. All dogs are stimulated by these senses in different ways and each dog favors one or more senses over the others. Your dogs “hard wiring” will give us some insight into his preferences. Let’s look at some common breeds and their attraction to different types of dog toys.

What The Retrievers Want

Retrievers will work all day for a cookie, because they have a good work ethic and are food motivated, right? Yes, but they’re also sight stimulated and bite stimulated. Retrieving is a joy for them because there are two attractors in this retrieval game. One is visual stimulation, ‘chase the toy’ the other is bite stimulation ‘carry the toy’.

I don’t think that it is a coincidence that retrievers like to chase things that fall out of the sky. They were bred to retrieve birds and bring them back to their masters. Now they’re chasing tennis balls, but the game remains the same. The toy stimulates their natural senses and the game stimulates their natural behaviors.

What The Shepherds Want

Herding breeds including Shepherds and Collies, like most dogs, are sight and bite stimulated. But being bred to herd stock they’ll be most motivated to control, grip or nip at a dog toy that simulates the herding experience. Imagine the sight, from the dog’s perspective, of a herd running in tight formation. Visual movement is a strong stimulator for them. Real sheepskin or a visually active toy they can grip and control could be their dream come true!

What The Terriers Want

How about terriers? Terriers were ratters; they find their joy in the dirt. Instinctually they’ll want to locate prey by scent and sound and then kill it. They’ll like toys that scurry and squeak or smell like vermin. Real animal scents like raccoon or squirrel could be just the ticket or an erratic floor level dog toy. While retrievers and herders should be sight and bite stimulated, terriers should be sound, smell and bite stimulated.

What Do All Dogs Want?

If you have a mixed breed dog, or your dog doesn’t follow the breed type, you should ask yourself what kind of toy your dog has enjoyed in the past and what creates the most excitement. Was it something at ground level, like a rolling ball? Or did your dog want to struggle for control in a game of tug, chase something that fell from the sky, or tear at something really smelly? What toys are ignored? Comparing the toys your dog likes and doesn’t like, based on how the dog toy moves and smells will help you determine what he wants.

My Dog’s Favorites

My lab Annie’s favorite toys are a plain old tennis ball and our two-handled Fur Force toy. Both are slightly furry with a firm but yielding bite, so I’d look for that in any new toy. We play fetch with the ball and tug with the Fur Force toy, which are bite and sight stimulations. But, the one stimulator you might not expect is actually the most important for her.

The ULTIMATE Dog Toy

The ultimate dog toy, from Annie’s perspective, is me. The interaction between us is the common thread and it’s what she really loves. So any toy that involves me will do because she will play with any object as long as I’m involved.

She ignores every dog toy we have unless I’m playing with her. She’ll take any toy off the floor when I return home to entice me into a game of ‘slow speed chase,’ where she trots around the house and I pretend to try and catch her.

It took a while for me to figure out that I was the common factor in her favorite toys. I bought lots of dog toys when she was young that she really had no interest in. Now, I don’t waste money on toys that don’t involve me because she won’t play with them. She only wants interactive dog toys and from her perspective, that’s the way it ought to be.

Easy Rules for Choosing a Good Toy

So, there you have it. Look for the common thread in your dogs desire to play in a certain way or with certain things, including yourself. He may like soft toys, but not hard ones. Or like to chase toys, but only if they are scented or baited. If your dog likes squeaky toys, perhaps he’s sound stimulated. But, if he ignores noisy toys if they don’t have a soft furry cover, then the fur is important to him. If squeaky toys frighten your dog, skip the noisy ones and look for a scent or sight-stimulating toy.

Is your sheltie too shy to tug? Then try a dog toy that is soft or naturally scented or a small toy he can chase and easily dominate. Our Soft Tug N Treat was designed to help shy dogs learn how to play with toys.

Does your retriever refuse cookies? Try a movement or a prey scent toy or a bite stimulation toy. If your dog only plays with you, perhaps any interaction toy will be fine.

The Right Toy For That Job

The toy I mentioned in the famous trainer story (at the beginning of this post) was the hot ticket for her dog because it was fluffy and bouncy, had erratic movements and was situated at floor level. From a terrier point of view, it doesn’t get much better. It was the perfect dog toy for that dog because it had the right size, it was in the right place and it had the right movement.

An Informed Choice

You can’t always tell for sure what your dog will like. But by understanding sense stimulation and interaction and by observing your dog, you can make a really good choice. We have a lot of great interactive dog toys here on our site and there are good toys in most stores as well. With some observation, and a little thought, it’ll be easy for you to get the dog toy that “your dog” will love. 

Which Toys Are “Interactive” Dog Toys?

By our definition, interactive dog toys and games can include:

• Dog tug toys (the classic interactive dog toy and our specialty)
• Balls, throw toys, retrieving toys (if you throw the ball repeatedly)
• Keep away toys (most tug toys are use for this game)

Even a stick or leaf can be used as an interactive dog toy. It wasn’t uncommon for me to use a tiny twig to entertain and excite my lab Annie while waiting for our turn to compete in Agility. Because she was dog play trained from a puppy, she would play with anything as long as I was involved. I am Annie’s interactive toy dog , and that’s the ultimate goal.

The Toe Game

Annie and I have a game where I try to step on her front toes and she tries to nip my toes in return. We jump around looking like two crazy jumping beans hopping around in circles. In this game my toes, or me depending on how you look at it, are the interactive toy. The goal of interactive dog play is for the person to “be” the toy; the dog tug toy between you is just the playing field. When the person on the other end of the toy is the most interesting thing on the planet, we’ve done our job correctly.

Sight, Bite, Sound, Smell Toys

To get your dog really excited about playing with any one toy, and therefore excited about playing with you. We put what we call sense stimulators in all of our dog tug toys. Our toys excite your dog’s primary senses and drives with “Sight, Bite, Sound and Smell Stimulators.” Our goal is to create the most enticing dog toys possible so that you can be your dogs perfect interactive play partner.

Bonding With Your Dog

When Dali sees us with the bag, she literally jumps for joy. The highlight of her day is when we take time out of our busy schedule to play with her because she knows it’s her special time. Interactive dog toys are simply a great way to bond with your dog.

Favorite Toy

Dali’s favorite interactive dog toy is a silly one called a Bungee Ball Tug with Mini Balls which we got from Genuine Dog Gear. It consists of two 1.5″ tennis balls that are attached at opposite ends of a durable nylon bungee strap, which stretches to about 22.”

Sight Stimulator Dog Toy

The Bungee Ball Tug with Mini Balls toy is an excellent choice for sight stimulated dogs like our Australian Shepard. Because the dog toy is made of tennis balls and a bungee strap, it bounces unpredictably and flips through the air. She puts the bungee in her mouth and the balls whack her in the head as she whips around. It really gets her going!

I’m sure that you will find this goofy interactive dog toy, will provide your own dog with the same joy and excitement that Dali gets.