how can I play with my dog?

November 2, 2009 1:18 PM

how do I teach my dog to play?

We adopted a retired greyhound from a rescue group, and he's an adorable and very mellow boy. He loves his walks (and gets very excited about going) and trips to the dog park (although he's still trying to figure out what to do with other dogs besides sniff them).

Sometimes he grab a squeaky toy out of his basket, squeak it madly and catch it when we toss it around. Then, just as abruptly, he'll be done and walk away without a second glance. If he's not in the mood, he'll just look at you quizzically.

We plan to take him to obedience class soon, and have started some basic clicker training (which he enjoys.) What can we do to teach him how to play or engage his mind in a small condo (or local dog park)? chase a ball? a toy?

Obviously being a greyhound, no rough and tumble games.

I'm looking for a playful way of interacting with him, rather than just filling a kong with treats and watching him go at it (still funny!).

Help me, hivemind! Bonus for grey-specific knowledge.

posted by canine epigram to pets & animals (29 comments total)

Just take him for lots of walks, when he feels like playing he will play with you.
posted by BobbyDigital at 1:28 PM on November 2

I agree with BobbyDigital. Just make sure he gets lots of outside exercise and then, if he wants to, he will play with you. Dogs, like humans, sometimes just don't want to do certain things.
posted by lucy.jakobs at 1:30 PM on November 2

Well, our half-whippet/half-lab dog absolutely adores chasing a ball.
We use one of those ball-launcher things and she practically quivers while we're getting ready to throw.
Greyhounds/Whippets are sight hounds, so love to run after things that move - hence the ball-chasing. Our girl has been very good about bringing it back (command: bring it! bring it!) - but she's sorta smart that way.
Curious - why 'no rough and tumble'? Our dog adores chasing/wrestling with other dogs - is this bad for Greyhounds?
posted by dbmcd at 1:31 PM on November 2

Sometimes he grab a squeaky toy out of his basket, squeak it madly and catch it when we toss it around. Then, just as abruptly, he'll be done and walk away without a second glance.

To some extent, that's just how greyhounds are, although his personality will continue to evolve as he gets used to his life in retirement.

It took us years to teach our greyhound to play tug-of-war using a long skinny plush squeaky toy. I'm not sure how we did it, but I think it involved shaking the toy around while it was in her mouth (but not trying to pull it at first because she'd just let go). Years, seriously.

She always liked the "hide the squeaky toy behind your back and squeak it" game. But again, interest in such games never lasted more than a few minutes at a stretch.

She never learned to chase a ball, really, although she would occasionally show interest in a thrown tennis ball. At the dog park, she would race the dogs that were chasing a ball/toy but never went after it herself. It was usually easy to get her to race me at the dog park, too.

I do know one greyhound that did agility. They're not very *good* at it (although flyball might also work, given their love of running) but he enjoyed the interaction with his owner.
posted by misskaz at 1:32 PM on November 2

Oh! And how could I forget lure-coursing? I mean, if you really want to do the thing that your hound was bred for and loves to do, lure coursing is probably it. The only problem is that the courses are not always fenced - which may be against the terms of your adoption contract and/or may be beyond your level of comfort in terms of off-leash play.
posted by misskaz at 1:35 PM on November 2 [1 favorite]

As the dog gets more and more comfortable being a member of your pack, play behavior will evolve, esp. if the alpha male or female (you, hopefully) shows an interest.

The issue is one of bonding, I think. Keep being a dog with him. It'll happen.
posted by Danf at 1:37 PM on November 2 [2 favorites]

Just keep doing what you are doing. Greyhounds seem to have a bit of an austere, solemn side. Most of them are retired racers and have had little interaction with humans as do most pet dogs, and some will play a little, some not so much. Certainly nothing like a cute little ball of fur when you make their aquaintance, I think some have to learn how fun life can be with people, even if they have that measure of reserve that I suppose could be of genetic or environmental (I say this because a buddy of mine adopted one as an adult that had not been a former racer, but a retired show animal, and he certainly had alot of personality. This friend has since moved on to a whippet, and his personality is very reserved).
posted by bebrave! at 1:40 PM on November 2

In Soviet Russia, greyhound plays with you!

Apologies for the bad joke, but there's some truth to it. Racing greyhounds are socialized differently than other dogs, and it often leads to them being pretty aloof around humans (even their owners) as adults. It may take him a while to warm up to playing with you in that way, and some greyhounds don't really ever want to play as much as or like other dogs. With my greyhounds, it took each around 6 months for them to really see me as the alpha dog, and they started playing more after that. Even then, they're never going to play like a lab or a Bernese or a dog like that.

Sometimes people will do lure-coursing or other similar activities with their dogs, but it's not as easy as just playing with a ball or something similar.

However, there is one secret weapon that I have found almost all greyhounds love. With the dog laying on its side, rub the rear leg or belly or back vigorously for a few seconds, and then stop. Wait for the greyhound to acknowledge that you've stopped (just a leg or a head lifting is enough). Then start again, and alternate vigorous rubbing and petting with stopping every five or ten seconds. Eventually, most greys will get really excited about the belly- or leg-rubbing, and will get really animated when you stop - flopping their paws on you, cocking their heads weirdly, play-nipping at you or even howling a little. My dogs love this, and they'll often be up for more active playing after a little of this.
posted by iknowizbirfmark at 1:40 PM on November 2 [1 favorite]

Agree that the dog will play when he feels like playing, and you don't want to wear out the dog's patience trying to get him to play -- but, on the other hand, our dog can also be enticed to play and then she seems to really gets into it.

Some ideas:

(1) Usually, running from a dog will cause the dog to chase you (more so for a greyhound, I would think), and if you run with a toy in your hand, he may get the idea sooner than later.
(2) Maybe cat toys would work, like a mouse on a string that you can zip out in front of the dog a few yards and then pull it back when he goes for it.
(3) Our dog (a rescued bulldog -- rather the opposite type to yours!) will play with anything but prefers it when two of us bounce a ball to each other and she has to leap for it and run between us.
(4) She also likes to "find" things we hide around the house ("Find it!") ... Not sure if a greyhound would enjoy that or not. If you want to try, start with teaching the dog to find a person he likes.
(5) Maybe your dog's idea of play is exploring the neighbourhood on walks and at the dog park. That's interactive, too, because you're there encouraging him and being his buddy.

Good luck!
posted by mmw at 1:40 PM on November 2

We've had a retired greyhound for five years. Nthing the "they don't much like this sort of thing".

Gordy will sometimes want to play [a favorite thing is for him to go into "Downward Dog" and then we crouch in front of him and cover his paws with our hands; he pulls them out and dances about a bit and then puts them back for round N], but as mentioned by others there's not really any way to get him to. He either wants to or not, and is done just as suddenly.

At the dog park, he'll run with other dogs, but not by himself or with us.
posted by chazlarson at 1:42 PM on November 2

If he doesn't want to I doubt there's any way to.
There's many a time when one of our whippety mongrels just isn't interested and there's really nothing you can do to persuade her. She'd generally rather go for a nice walk and amuse herself and chase living things. She is a bizarrely stubborn creature for a dog mind you; I've never seen a dog behave so like a cat at times, so may not be relevant to your dog.
posted by opsin at 1:49 PM on November 2

My friend adopted a greyhound last year and she noticed that Sydney only liked soft plush toys--especially ones with squeakers. She rarely gave plastic toys the time of day. She also gives Syd kongs with frozen peanut butter and raw hide chewies.

She would throw the toys around to show Syd what to do with them and actually demonstrate chasing things. That worked pretty well and now Syd is hilarious with her toys. She throws them around in delight and kicks them. It's a treat to watch.
posted by Kimberly at 1:54 PM on November 2

To comment slightlier further - I'd reckon throwing balls would be the best; certainly amused all our dogs more than most things. But then again the whippety one won't really bring balls back. Without another dog to chase, and hang off the ear of, she loses interest very fast.

Mostly I think experiencing places they don't spend all day in is the thing that amuses them the most though, and if they run around exploring ought to give them more than enough excercise. Certainly our dogs will drop whatever they're playing with if they sense they might get a walk instead. So I guess - just a bit of everything to keep him amused...
posted by opsin at 1:54 PM on November 2

When I first got my dog (she was a puppy, and the last time I lived with a puppy, I was a few weeks old myself!), my former roommate showed me a sort of "dog sign language" way of indicating I wanted to play -- her mother trained German Shepherds, so she knew all kinds of weird dog stuff. Basically, get yourself into a kind of modified downward facing dog yoga position (knees can be on the floor, important part is having your rear end in the air), with your "paws" flat on the ground in front of you. This signals you want to play. First time I ever did it with my dog, she got a "WHAT? YOU SPEAK DOG???" look on her face and was superexcited, so I suppose it's worth a try!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 2:15 PM on November 2 [4 favorites]

I adopted a 2 year old male doberman back in 2001. I promptly went to the store and bought him frisbees, giant balls, kongs, in short, everything I thought a dog would like. All of them were failures. He has never, ever, shown an interest in playing with anything except stuffed animals, which he chews on a bit and then likes to cuddle with. Some dogs just don't like playing I guess.
posted by tryniti at 3:15 PM on November 2

Seconding chasing. It's a pretty basic dog instinct to run after people running away from them. I don't know if you've already tried this, I'd try petting him, then getting him psyched up by talking to him in an excited and enthusiastic voice and shifting your weight quickly from side to side. Then make a break for it, possibly with some object he likes. Let him catch you and give him a hug. Some dogs will then let you chase them.
posted by ignignokt at 3:17 PM on November 2

A modified form of chasing I do with our latest addition (a Terrier/Shepherd mix) is with a laser pointer. I found this quite accidentally one night when I used our flash light to go poo-hunting in the yard. Dino started chasing the red light and soon I found that he really enjoyed the "hunt". He's wised up since and knows where it comes from, but he still enjoys chasing it. It's a good way to work that hunting instinct he's got naturally into something positive.
posted by arishaun at 3:23 PM on November 2

I have an Australian Shepherd rescue who we thought was terribly serious when we first adopted him in May 2008. Then we discovered he does have a favorite game, which is to have us chase him, but we wanted something more interactive than watching him disappear into his "den" with whatever he had grabbed. So we started just gently playing "tug" with him with his favorite toys (he likes sticks and squeaky soft toys), just for a few minutes at a time. Once he got into tugging, we started tossing the toy and praising him for bringing it back, then playing more tug. Now he proposes play with us and is a reliable retriever of his toys too. It is hard to resist him as he wags his stubby tail and stares at us as he squeaks his toy in his mouth!

Patience and a sense of fun and short sessions will take you a long way in engaging your dog in play, we have discovered.
posted by bearwife at 3:25 PM on November 2 [1 favorite]

Greyhounds have a strong prey drive, right? You should go check out some of the toys they have for motivating agility dogs at Clean Run. My dogs have this Chase It toy that's basically a stuffed squirrel on a fishing pole. It has freakily lifelike movement--your dog might go nuts for it. Clean Run also has lots of other motivational toys like rabbit fur or sheepskin tugs. Gross, but dogs love them.
posted by HotToddy at 3:33 PM on November 2

Also, I don't recommend a laser pointer. Some dogs can have harmless fun with these; others become neurotically obsessed to the point of OCD-like behavior. Not worth the risk, IMO.
posted by HotToddy at 3:34 PM on November 2 [2 favorites]

You might enjoy Playtraining Your Dog by Patricia Gail Burnham if you can find a copy of it (looks like it might be out of print).
The author advocates using play as a reward when training for AKC style obedience, & most of the photos in this book are of her greyhounds. The photographs are a lot of fun.
Some of training methods in this book might be a little out of date, but play as a reward is still a great idea.
I see she has a newer book as well which might also be good.
posted by easilyamused at 3:58 PM on November 2

another greyhound owner here, to say that our dogs are not particularly playful. their bursts of playful energy tend to be brief, just as their races were. they especially like squeaky toys, and love to chase one that is thrown across the yard, but fetch is beyond them. one is definitely more playful, and the more reticent one has learned to be more playful from him. at the dog park, they tend to keep to the perimeter, but will sometimes 'chase' the small dogs in the adjacent small-dog park. they are definitely MUCH more stimulated when we can coordinate to meet with other greyhound owners at the dog park, and they are much more likely to run and play then. i would avoid comparing your greyhounds to other breeds of dogs and determine your dog's happiness by his smiles and his growing ease around you. as others have said, he will come into his own over the next months (and years) and develop a personality. he will likely become more playful in that time, and you may find that the addition of another greyhound to the family will further enrich his life (and keep him engaged if the humans are away at work a lot).
posted by QuakerMel at 3:59 PM on November 2

Basically, get yourself into a kind of modified downward facing dog yoga position (knees can be on the floor, important part is having your rear end in the air), with your "paws" flat on the ground in front of you. This signals you want to play. First time I ever did it with my dog, she got a "WHAT? YOU SPEAK DOG???" look on her face and was superexcited, so I suppose it's worth a try!

Seconding this. For extra playfulness, try pounding the ground with your forearms/palms when in this position.

Years ago, I read a book (whose title escapes me) on communicating with animals using animal-ish body language. It suggested playing with a dog as a dog would. There are three primary dog games:

1. I bring you toy, put it down in front of you. When you take it, I grab it back and we play tug-of-war.

2. I bring you toy, put it down in front of you. When you go to grab it, I grab it back and run away and you chase me.

3. I bring you toy, put it down in front of you. When you grab it, you run away and I chase you.

As you can see, dog games aren't very complex.

One way that I've had luck engaging dogs with new toys is to play monkey in the middle. The dog is the monkey. The human participants should talk really excitedly about how awesome the toy is. When you get the dog really riled up, "accidentally" drop it on the ground.

I think all of the above is worth a shot before you resign yourself to having an unplayful dog, although they do exist. My mother's jack russell is a very serious little man who can be persuaded to run in circles, but nothing more.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:29 PM on November 2

My (much-missed) greyhound didn't play for six months, and then one day looked at one of the other dogs' stuffed lion head with real growling sounds(tm), LEAPT on it, and flung it up into the ceiling fan. I cried.

He loved to play and had a really awesome sense of humor for a dog, but he did not play normal dog games. He did like to chase me (or for me to stand still so he could run at me at top speed and veer at the last minute, which was not a game I lived very much, he was 90lbs), and he also liked for me to watch him run and clap and yell YAY. We also played hide and seek, with me hiding and him pretending not to know where I was. And:

For extra playfulness, try pounding the ground with your forearms/palms when in this [play bow] position.

This. He loved that game.

He would kill stuffed animals (and pillows, I had to double-bag with pillowcases so he couldn't get at pillow seams) and clearly liked that, but I couldn't touch the toy. No tug, he didn't really like for things to be thrown, he didn't want to play any sort of dominance type games. He would only run with the other dogs, as well, he'd walk away from toys if the other dogs looked at them.

It took about a year to get beyond stuffing-pulling and the running games, though. They are in a lot of ways giant cats more than dogs, but I do think they are capable of a lot of creative play. You just have to watch and take your lead from them.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:58 PM on November 2 [1 favorite]

I spent quite a bit of time with the DangerisMyMiddleName family greyhounds, of whom there were two, both female. The elder, Lucy, was calm and reserved and didn't really play at all, though she loved being petted and cuddled. The younger, Misha, sounds more like your dog-- she has short bursts of playful energy, usually in the evening. As a racing breed, greyhounds' metabolism is geared towards long periods of rest and short periods of frenzied activity. Misha, once she'd settled in, would signal "I want to PLAY now" with a single sharp bark, usually from the bedroom. Then it would be time for tug-of-war with a rope thing and games of catch (she was no fetcher, but excellent at catch) with a ball or stuffed jingly toy. When she'd had enough she would settle down on her bed and chew on a rawhide bone or some such thing.

So basically: your dog's metabolism (as well as the routine you establish) will dictate when they feel like playing. Seconding everyone who said "short bursts of energy". Good luck with your hound!
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:10 PM on November 2

We had a grey for 11 years (still miss my guy!) and he never really "learned" to play. He did do the run-full-steam-at-me-and-veer-at-the-last-second game that Lyn described above, and he loved to run back and forth along the length of the back yard fence with the dog who lived next door. Trai loved going for walks, and he liked soft toys (with or without squeakies), but he just sort of collected them, carried them a little bit, and kept them nearby on his doggy bed (like a child with a teddy bear). He also enjoyed collecting Mr. Adams' socks and hiding them under his bankie. When we got together with other grey owners and their dogs, it seemed like the major play activity was simply running around together, or sometimes even "prancing" in tandem, tails describing happy circles the entire time (it looked to me like the dogs were saying "Look - another one just like me!") But for the most part, greys are like overgrown cats. They love short bursts of energy, then lots of lounging around on a soft surface, being stroked and petted (and spoiled).
posted by Oriole Adams at 12:03 AM on November 3

Our girl isn't a greyhound, but she is a rescue, and I don't think she ever had toys before... She was just sort of bewildered by them, and couldn't understand why the hell I was acting so silly when I tried to get her to play. (Except, of course, for the treat-filled Kong, which is like whoah. 'til it's empty, but she remains hopeful for a while.)

But she grew into playing a lot more after about six months or so. We found that, as some others have mentioned, she much prefers plushy toys - something like this, with "legs" that she can grab and "whip" is preferred. she has a couple of these that she alternately "kills" and carries around to relocate at her special places. She adored her Zanies Swinger bunny until she loved it to death. She'll engage in a bit of tug-o'-war or jump n' grab with these things.

She also has a fondness for my shoes, though she mostly restrains herself. My Crocs have little doggy teeth marks all over them, because they are apparently the best! She liked them so much that I bought a pair of cheapo knockoffs, and gave one to her after wearing them a bit... but apparently, she's a brand snob - she never took to the stand-in. (yes, I know - not a great idea to train your dog to play with shoes, but since she not that interested in very many things, I gave it a shot; she's pretty good at understanding ownership issues.)

If you have any doggy pals who play, you might try inviting them over and playing with them as a demonstration... I know that our girl didn't show the slightest interest in a rawhide chewie until another dog came to visit and picked it up. She very indignantly took it back and started chewing, and has been wild for them ever since.
posted by taz at 5:02 AM on November 3

Glad to know he's doing so well that this is the question! Retired racers typically take a bit of time to acclimate to being a pet -- mine has just learned that the couch is comfy after being home for six months, and for the first time tried to take a stick away from a retriever friend on our walk last night (he's never shown any interest in sticks before). There are any number of threads about getting a grey to play over on the Greytalk forums, and here's a sampling: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I'm sure you'll find more by searching there.

A couple of ideas to try -- a lure pole with something floppy on the end, or an "octopus" type of rope toy that lets him do the vigorous prey shake and lets you try tug-of-war. The no-fail toys in our house are soft stuffies with both squeakers and grunters inside -- we play a sort of fetch with those. He's also a fan of the largish, fleece stuffed balls with squeakers and will often play by himself with one, flinging it up in the air and catching it.

You'll be amazed at how much your grey will expand his horizons over the first six months to a year!
posted by vers at 6:46 AM on November 3 [1 favorite]

It was a matter of learning to read his "ready to play" body language and finding the right squeaky toys. Fleecey ball to toss and squeak to death, stuffed honking duck to kill the squeaker way too quickly.
posted by canine epigram at 9:24 AM on December 4