Dutch Shepherd Forum

She loves her soft cuddly toys but they sure don't last long! We took a trip to Target today and my 3 year old son insisted we get Stella a toy

and dutch!!

HAHAHAHA, wow, 10 minutes, thats a long time.

LOL, yup, sounds about right!

I use stuffies as rewards when training. I give one to her for a very short time, so it works great because she really wants it, but because she only has it for a short time, it lasts a long time

Great idea, Sue!

I'm going to have to start doing that... and I thought my kids were hard on their toys!

*grin* It was funny, all of my dogs (sorry, no DS stories, YET, soon, once I get my first one, but many GSD and "other" experiences,) had very specific toy tastes and styles. Each of them had a go-to type of toy that they preferred, (and it was awesome because they rarely fought over toys, since they mostly preferred different ones,) and as far as stuffies, they each had a different manner of play.

Cory, my GSD was all about her frisbee, my dad would jokingly call it her "Binky" it went everywhere with her, with stuffies, she'd just do what Stella did and mutilate the thing.

Cedar (rottie/pit mix)preferred bones or a rope toy, his M.O. for stuffies was to just "surgically" bore a tiny hole in one section of seam and then pull all the stuffing out through that one little opening, leaving it otherwise intact, so we'd end up with this collection of empty stuffed animal "hides" lying around the house!

Lastly Maiyou, my New Guinea Singing Dog/Pit mix, (who is the last of the trio still living,) loves her stuffies, and doesn't mutilate them. She will shake the bejeezus out of them, and likes to toss them in the air and leap up on her hind legs and catch them between her forepaws on the way down, shake and toss shake and toss, and always must grab a stuffed animal as an offering to greet friends and family when they come in the door. Whenever someone comes home, or a known and favored guest arrives, she frantically looks all around her until she spots the nearest stuffie and pounces on it and then rushes to greet with it in her mouth.

I don't even bother buying stuffed toys for Geyser...they last as long as it takes her to disembowl them .

Once in a great while, for a treat, OK, but that's about it.

Sue...great idea to use them as a reward and take them up before they're destroyed!

I found a great double ring rubber toy for the girls, and it has lasted a year !! It was at the Agway. Its the only toy, besides moose antlers they have. They pull and tug the crap out of it and hasnt broken, cracked had any pieces come out of it. They chew on the antlers and play tug with the rings.

I made a believer out the husband about "fragile" toys with Thor. He gets generally only gets toys when I am at the other end and when a new one comes in to the picture (stuffed, pop-able) they are the best thing on the planet in his opinion, but he listens how they are to get handled. The husband may give him an easily destructible one in the morning and forget to take it back, but when I get up...it's there, on the floor somewhere, still intact.

He gets to have his brutish ways with the big, red, plastic Folger's coffee containers. In seconds, they're pounded flat. (Then he gets to "bin it" in the recycling container.) The flat tops to the container make a great flying disc which he is also allowed to have his way with.

Just putting in my worthless two-cents about toys and how I've made it part of training with the God of Thunder.