Teaching an old dog to play again

Zinja

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had success having an older dog play with toys again such as Tug or chewing on a kong/nylabone. Ninja is 12 years old but she stopped playing with stuffed animals at the age of 8ish. She began playing again when Sasuke was over as she would play when Sasuke was around. She would actually began guarding Sasuke's toys so she can play with them while Sasuke watched.

We adopted a 5 year old and she does not like playing with toys or chase balls. Does this have anything to do with the fact that she was outdoors all her life and toys do not look like the real animals?

Yandharr

Could just be that she is just not that into toys anymore. I have a 2.5 y/o that used to live for toys, one day he just decided to take an "eff it" attitude towards all toys and will only play with them if they happen to be in his way. Does your 5 y/o like to chase live animals still? It could be a general lack of interest??

Araks

We found my min pin when he was around 5ish, and he didn't *actually* play with toys until last year, when he was 8-9ish. We tried playing with him since day one, and he would just look at us like we were crazy for throwing a stuffed animal for him to get. Then one day he just started play bowing to me and so I threw the toy, and lo and behold, he ran over, grabbed it, and brought it back. With your new addition, I would think that when she feels more comfortable with you, she may learn to play, at least that's what I feel happened with us.

Trzcina

My stepmom had a sheltie mix for many years; she'd never learned to play with toys even when she was young, but then learned from my Lapphund at the age of ~12. So it's possible... but usually I've only seen other dogs teach them to play with toys. Sometimes I've had more success coaxing dogs into playing by running the toy along the ground for them to pounce on--my Lapphund likes this better than playing fetch (which she seems to consider pointless, haha).

Of course, the sheltie mix also -took- all of my Lapphund's toys once she decided she liked them and would no longer allow her access to her own toys unless I intervened.

PoetikDragon

It can also be a while until the dog adjusts and is comfortable playing with toys. It took our foster JA about a month to really "come out of his shell" and play with the toys and other dogs.