Motivating our agility dogs to maximum performance sometimes requires us to shell out the groceries! Training dogs with treats is a proven training and accepted method and I still use treats occasionally myself.
One of the primary features of the dog toys in this food motivation category is that we get more options and control for the ‘payoffs’, and we get more mileage out of our treats.
Grocery Control
Food Motivation dog toys allow your dog to smell, taste and feel the yummie treats inside the toy without actually getting the treat, yet. They can play tug with the toy ‘fighting’ for their goodies, which will raise their excitement and stimulation level. And they can chase the thrown toy, or catch it in the air, but they’re only going to get the morsels inside when you decide the time is right. This allows you to use food to your best advantage, and to reward when and where you decide.
Where’s The Beef?
You can use any contents with these super tough food pouches, from favorite dog treats to cooked or raw people foods. A personal favorite of mine is steak scraps. I taught my submissive Border Collie to ‘take’ using the Soft Tug N Treat and steak scraps. You can use hamburger, chicken, salmon skin or cheese whatever floats your dog’s boat. Personally I go for fragrant foods, I think the smellier the better.
Not Just For Food
These dog toys can also be used to teach dogs to track animal scents, drug detection and cadaver work. Any scent object can be placed in the Velcro pouch and carried or dragged to your target location by the convenient handle. It is possible to attach a line or leash to the handle of this toy to make dragging the toy easier.
To reduce the amount of handler scent on the toy we suggest you get a helper to load the toy then loop a leash through the handle of the toy to transport it or drag it. Once you’re at your target location, simply release one end of the loop and drop the dog toy to the ground.
Side note: both the name and the design of the Tug N Treat toy has been copied by another company. We guarantee our products against defects in materials and workmanship.
If you want to know how to make the perfect fleece tug leash, look right here and copy how we make ours.
- First buy some top quality fleece fabric, preferably made in America. You’ll need three yards of fabric (6 yards if you want two different colors 3 yards of each).
- Then find some soft tubular webbing in 9/16” or 5/8” width, but not too thick or stiff, find a thin and pliable webbing with a high tensile strength.
- You’ll need a snap hook in the appropriate size, we use a non-rusting nickel plated 5/8” snap hook. You can use a larger or smaller hook if you want to.
- If you’re going to use the leash for AKC competition, you’ll need a heavy duty sewing machine as well.
Follow These 7 Steps
- Cut one strip of fabric from each color, or two strips from the same color. Cut them approximately 2.5” wide the full length of the material.
- Cut your webbing into a 100” length.
- Wrap one end of the webbing through your snap hook and sew the webbing closed 1.5” below the fold.
- Sew the ends of your fleece fabric together.
- Thread the joined fabric strips through the webbing loop below the snap until the sewn part of the fleece is right below the snap and begin braiding.
- When the fleece and webbing are all braided together, fold back 8” of the braid to form a handle, use the left over webbing to wrap around the base of the handle and sew it shut with your sewing machine.
- You’ll need an industrial machine for this part, and it helps if it had a walking foot. Be sure to use a large size needle or you’ll just break all your needles.
There you have it!! Every thing you need to do it your self.
Option #2
The other option to tracking down the materials and getting them shipped in or running around town to pick them up (assuming that you can find them locally), is to purchase a finished leash from us. AND! Here’s the good part. If you buy two the shipping is free!
Pretty cool eh?
Do The Math
I’m pretty sure that if you do the math by adding up the cost of all the materials, shipping for delivery, or gas for going to the store, as well as value your time at a minimum of say $5 an hour, you’ll find that our braided leashes are a HUGE value! The do it yourself version could easily add up to $25 or $30 for materials and with a minimum cost for your time, probably another $15 to $25 dollars.
Feel The Love
Be kind to yourself, follow this link and purchase one from us, you’ll have it in less time than it takes to find all the parts that you need, and you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that you were good to yourself and saved time and money and that you were
Genuine Dog Gear created a revolution in agility and flyball dog training toys and we did it with polyester fleece fabric. Fleece has a high tensile strength which is another way of saying that it’s strong, puncture and tear resistant. It’s ideal for dog training toys not only because it’s strong, but also because it’s abrasion resistant, it doesn’t fray, it’s safe if swallowed, it’s color fast, it’s lightweight and it’s crush resistant. Oh yea, and machine washable too (not that Fido cares!).
Perfection In Tatters
To make our fleece tug toys for dogs we start out with multiple bolts of colored fleece and slice and dice it into thick and thin, short and long strips. Then we braid them back together again into all sorts of shapes with bite zones for bite stimulation and tassels for sight stimulation. We sew real fur onto some strips so that we can incorporate smell stimulation into a fleece dog toy without having the fur pull out of the toy, and we braid in soft thick handles to ease the strain on your hands from tons of tugging.
Shock Absorbers For Dogs
The best feature of our fleece tug toys is the stretch that is built into the toy because of the thickness of the strips and the way we braid them. Whether you notice or not,
Every time you use your fleece tug toy it’s stretching under the strain of your dog gripping and pulling. This stretch cushions the tugging shock for both you and your dog.
A Toy For Every Dog
We have fleece tug toys for dogs is such a variety of sizes and shapes it can be hard to choose the right one for your dog, but this list may help. The Flyball toys are the largest and longest of the toys, especially the Super King Tug. The Rocket 8 is currently our smallest toy, however we are going to introduce a smaller toy with fur soon.
Here are some suggested dog toys by use:
Flyball
- King Tug
- Super King Tug
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Tugmasters
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Tuff E Nuff Large
Agility
Home Use
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Frenzy rings
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Jitterbug Tug
- Tugmaster
Boy, have we a leash for you! Like my Mom always said, if we haven’t got it, you don’t need it. Of course she was talking about Thanksgiving dinner not leashes, but it’s true here all the same. We’ve got:
- Slip Leashes
- Tug Leashes
- Humane Leashes
- Logo Leashes
- Multi Purpose leashes
- Jersey Leashes
- Nylon Leashes
- Braided Leashes
- Fur Leashes
- Fleece Leashes
- Bungee Leashes
- 4’ Leashes
- 6’ Leashes
Success By Any Measure
If success were measured by imitators, our dog leashes would win first place for sure. However, while copycats may be common, our quality is one of a kind. Our braided tug leashes were not only the first tug leads for agility, but still the best and the only ones with braided in webbing for stretch resistance. And of course they always were, and always will be AKC competition legal.
Humane Is The Only Way To Go
I invented the humane slip leash for dogs, a significant improvement on the British-style slip leads, because I wanted to use a slip leash for competition, but didn’t want to risk choking my dog. I called it the Humane Slip Leash, in my mind that’s what it is. This choke free, humane improvement on the UK slip leads became so popular, we now offer it on our braided dog leashes, flat leashes, logo leashes and premium weight leashes as well as patterned leashes.
#1 Again
I also invented the bungee leash, the most copied and duplicated of all our products. But who cares about copys? All you need to know is that our products are so good that even our competitors have to have them. Pretty cool, eh?
All Under One Roof
From our one-of-a-kind light lines & super slick long lines, to our beautiful Martingale dog tug leashes we took your training and competition problems and provided the right dog leashes for all your dog training and handling issues. If you’re looking for a leash to walk one or more dogs, it’s hard to imagine that you won’t find it here.
This is not a ‘shock collar’ type dog training aid site. We don’t carry that kind of dog training aid here. If you’re looking for that kind of stuff however, you may have come to the right place.
Come Again?!
What?! That didn’t make sense did it? Shock collars on a positive training site? If we don’t have those here, how could this be the right place for people that are looking for those products?
What I mean to say is that if you’re so frustrated with your dog that you’re willing to consider buying a ‘dog training aid’ to control the animal, you might find some life saving information for your dog right here.
Is It All About The Training?
Yes, it’s all about the training, if you’re going to get the behavior from your dog that you want. But in the meantime, you’ve got some realities to deal with. You’ve got to control your dog, and you’ve got to solve some behavior problems if you’re here looking for dog training aids, yes?
I can’t solve all your dog problems overnight, but I’m guessing that if you’re still reading this you care enough about your dog to continue reading a little bit further and perhaps cruise this site for some answers to questions that are bothering you so. Please feel invited to stay, and please feel free to ask questions.
Lets Get Started
In the mean time, here are some helpful suggestions that I strongly recommend if you have a dog that you can’t control.
- Watch the “Dog Whisperer” on TV; maybe get on of his videos too. Catch a seminar if you can.
- Buy one of our EZ dog halters to gain some degree of control for walking your dog.
- Avoid the situations where your dog is completely out of control until you’ve learned how to decrease your dog’s reactions to those situations.
- Start walking your dog. Twice a day if possible and for as long as possible.
- Take your dog to training classes, and find a trainer that you really like.
90%
These simple instructions will solve most dog problems because most dogs are frustrated and bored, and their behavior looks reactive. I know, you probably think you just got a butthead dog and that’s all there is to it. As gently as possible, I’d like to let you know that you’re probably not right about that. I’m sorry.
I hate to tell you that the problem can be fixed, but you have to change. I know that’s awful, but the dog is just being a dog and that’s all there is to it. Yes, all dogs are different, and they have different personalities, but their problems are manifested in almost all the same ways, and our American pets are under-exercised and bored to death.
Going Forward
Following these instructions will ease your dog’s boredom and set you on the right path to discovering more about your dog and how to manage your (I mean his) issues. I recommend our head halters for dogs because they have softer and narrower webbing, which is more comfortable for your dog, and because the dog leash attaches at the top of the neck.
Control And Safety
The top of the neck is where Cesar Milan, ‘Dog Whisperer’, recommends you keep your dog leash when working with difficult dogs and he’s right. You will have better control, by far.
Because the dog leash on this dog halter attaches at the neck instead of under the chin, you’ll reduce the possibility of neck injury to your active and excitable dog. As he forgets to behave and lunges against the leash, your dog’s head won’t be getting twisted backwards as it would with dog halters that attach under the nose, or chin.
If Wishes Could Come True
My wish for you, and the difficult situation you find yourself in, is that you follow my advice. It’s good advice because it will bring you success and peace and build a new relationship with your dog. With exercise and experience you can discover a relationship that I suspect you never dreamed about.
One of the great joys of owning a dog is playing with them. Anyone who’s owned a dog will tell you it comes natural to them because dogs were born to play. As owners, we want safe, colorful and attractive toys for our dogs.
Confronterd with a wide assortment of dog toys to choose from, how do we decide which is the best toy for our dog? And how do we pick one that our dog likes? The best dog toy in the world isn’t any good if your dog won’t play with it!
Making The Right Choice
The right toy for your dog can be found by answering three questions.
- What do you want the dog toy to do?
- What does the dog like to play with?
- What’s safe for him to play with?
In future articles, I’ll guide you though the decision making process. We’ll take a look at some different types of dog toys to help you pick the right one for your dog.
The Right Toy For The Job
First we’ll look at what you want the toy to do. Do you want a toy to entertain your dog while you do something else, like watch TV or go to work? If so, you should choose a good dog chew toy, preferably with a food dispensing feature.
If you want to stimulate your dog to play with you, you’ll want a high value interactive dog toy, and if you want your dog to play peacefully with another dog, you’ll want a low value interactive dog toy.
What Turns Your Dog On
If you want a toy to motivate your dog to play with you or to achieve higher levels of sports performance, please read Choosing The Right Interactive Toy. This article discusses the types of interactive dog toys that might interest your dog based on personality, breed and size to help you choose the type of toy your dog may prefer.
Safety First
And last but not least, in future articles we’ll take a look at what not to buy. I will tell you which dog toys are unsafe or unwise for your dog, and how to spot bad choices.
Are you tired of purchasing dog toys that your dog ignores? Are you having trouble picking toys to motivate your dog? How can you tell what your dog will like before you buy a dog toy? Don’t feel bad, it’s not easy to know in advance what your dog will like and even training professionals can have difficulty making a good choice.
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.
 Dog Genius Hey guys! You all did great last week. Some of you face some early challenges, but I want you to know that they’ll all iron out quickly. The shy dogs always get acclimated faster than you would guess. And the resistant dogs will come right along once you start interacting with them. Don’t worry, have fun with your training and enjoy your dog. Send me an email if you’re concerned about anything. A copy of this weeks home work is below, I believe that the articles listed at the bottom of the page will be very helpful now.
Linda
The three P’s
Persistence –
• Hang in there you’ll get it!! Repeat each exercise the same way each time. Don’t accept non compliance. Persist until you get what you want. Practice makes perfect, dogs have to manually filter all their info and they can’t globalize so they needs tons of practice.
Perspective -
• We’re training dogs, not rocket scientists! Explanations confuse dogs. Dogs think differently than we do and they don’t have frontal lobes; they are constantly flooded with details. Watch for signs of stress. Yawing, looking away, head and or tail downward, sniffing the ground. Dogs can relax when we are good leaders.
Payoff -
• You can train without payoffs but it’s a lot faster and easier when you reward. Payoffs communicate most clearly to your dog in language he understands. Payoffs motivate your dog to respond quickly. Payoffs keep your dogs attention. Praise, food, play, expression are all excellent payoffs.
The basics
• Train when you’re relaxed and happy, your dog will be too, and learn faster. Corrections lack clear direction. Don’t correct, command! Don’t repeat yourself, the dog is confused enough. One command only – then physically help the dog into place. Train every where and all the time, your dog is watching and learning every second. Sit or Down for every privilege all
• Entry and exits to anything. All food. Access to toys and furniture. Walks, Play and all things good.
This Week
Sit – move treat over head
Down – move treat slowly at ground level
Come – high pitch, move quickly, backup, use toy.
5 X 5 Practice 5 times a day for 5 minutes.
Or 2 repetitions of each exercise 5 times a day. = 10 sits, 10 downs, 10 recalls.
Recommended reading
Puppy Brain
Doggie math
Watching your every move
If you want to stimulate your dog to play with you, boy have you come to the right place. I’ve built an entire company by specializing in stimulating a dog’s natural desire to play games like ‘keep away’, ‘chase me’ and ‘tug of war’. Our dog toys attract your dog’s attention and stimulate play by appealing to his senses with visual movement, enticing smells, interesting sounds and the all important, bite pleasure. So you can be assured that when I say the way to your dogs undivided attention is through the “sight, bite, sound and smell stimulators,” I know what I’m talking about.
What’s That?
Dog brains are hard wired to react to certain smells and rapid movements, so it’s fairly easy to get their attention with smell or floppy dog toys. Dogs will investigate almost any movement, so a wide variety of dog toys move or have parts that wiggle in some manner to pique interest. Attractive smells are found in dog toys that incorporate food, or natural animal skins like rabbit or sheepskin.
Sound Stimulation And Biting Pleasure
Noise makers like squeakers can get a varied reaction, some dogs love noisy dog toys, while others show no interest or worse, fear. This depends on the breed and on the individual dog.
Their sense of ‘bite’ also depends largely on the individual. Many dogs enjoy clamping onto, squashing, or ripping the stuffing from a toy, Talk about primal! Some dogs will prefer a firm but yielding object they can sink their teeth into. Not all dogs enjoy mouthing their toys or ripping things up, but most do and all high energy or high drive dogs will.
Breed Preferences
How dogs respond to these different sense stimulator dog toys will vary widely and breed does play a part. Certain breeds prefer visual stimulation or sound or scented toys. Herding dogs generally like visual toys while terriers may prefer natural sheepskin dog toys, and retrievers will chase almost anything. However, there isn’t any rule that will apply to all dogs. Breed and individual temperament combined with personality will play a large roll in what attracts and stimulates any dog.
How To Pick The Right Toy
A good play toy for your dog will include two or more of these different sense stimulators: “sight, bite sound or smell.” We use bright colors, and light and dark values, to enhance contrast for visual appeal and/or animal skins for smell stimulation. Then we offer a pleasant bite for a triple whammy, because once you’ve attracted your dog’s interest in a toy, it needs to offer something to keep him interested or he may just investigate it, then ignore it. For more information in choosing the right dog toy, read my article “Choosing The Right Interactive Dog Toy.”
In my article “How To Choose A Safe Dog Toy,” I talk more about good choices from the safety perspective, but basically dog toys should be strong enough to withstand tugging, griping, slobber and machine washing, yet soft enough to avoid injury with rough play. Interactive dog toys usually don’t withstand chewing because of these safety issues.
Safe Materials are important as well, because small pieces of these toys could be swallowed. Your dog toy needs to be safe, easy to clean, durable, appropriately sized, and should stimulate their natural senses.
If you don’t get the Whole Dog Journal, then I recommend that you do. It’s amazing how right-on they are about dog training and positive dog training methods.
In a recent article, they focused on having fun with your dog training, and how well positive dog training methods work. They took the words right out of my mouth. The Journal has two great articles you should read if you haven’t already.
If you would like more information on interactive dog toys, fleece tugs for dogs or dog tug toys, please read the following posts:
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