# Toys



## baking mama (Jul 11, 2010)

Hi, I just wondered what your cockapoos prefer to play with?

Freddy loves soft toys. His favourites seem to be rabbits! I find that normal dog toys don't tend to last very long, so we always raid the soft toy tombola at our school easter bazaar. For 30p we can stock up!

I also find that these toys (particularly ones for babies) seem to last a lot longer than dog toys. I wonder if this is because the standard of manufacturing has to be higher?


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## Jesarie (Sep 9, 2010)

Axle loves anything that is hard so he can chew for hours. Right now he has the same bone (one of those like hard platic ones, im not sure what they are called) for 3 months now. We get him rope every now and then because he likes them too BUT he tears them to shreds within 20 minutes of him having them. The good thing is that he NEVER chews on anything that is not his toy and he NEVER has.


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## embee (Dec 27, 2010)

Tennis ball for retrieving, stuffed kong for eating, nylabones for chewing, kong wubba for tugging.


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## shari313 (Apr 8, 2011)

Cassie loves the ropes! and i can get them at the dollar store.  but also the toys that have lasted so far have been the ones made of the strong silicone... and she loves them. there's a Smartpaw silicone ring with a rope woven through it, and she's been working on the rope for weeks, it's so fun for tug of war. she loves tug of war.  she chews on her baby blankets, and rawhide sticks. and i love seeing her play with crushed up 2 liter pop bottles! ha ha! i crush them so she can grab them well, and then put the cap back on... but they slide across the floor and get her all excited.


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## shari313 (Apr 8, 2011)

here's a photo (bad quality from just my phone) of Cassie playing with the ring i was talking about.
you can see a rope toy on the right that she's already shredded. ha ha.


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## baking mama (Jul 11, 2010)

embee said:


> Tennis ball for retrieving, stuffed kong for eating, nylabones for chewing, kong wubba for tugging.


I used to give Freddy a nylabone but not only did he chew it, but he also ate it (I thought this was ok because they were chicken flavour, but then I read the packet and realised they weren't edible )

With Freddy's soft toys, he tends to find part of it to suck, for instance the ear of a rabbit or the tail of the dog. He will happily lay for hours sucking away like its his comforter!!


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## kendal (Jul 16, 2009)

echo loves a ball, prefrable the soft rubber squeeky ones out of the pound shop. 

delta likes to suck and lightly chew on rope toys. 

i dont like nyla bones they become sharp wen the dog chews them, i gave myself a wee scratch/cut just picking one up so no way would i let my girls have them.


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## embee (Dec 27, 2010)

kendal said:


> echo loves a ball, prefrable the soft rubber squeeky ones out of the pound shop.
> 
> delta likes to suck and lightly chew on rope toys.
> 
> i dont like nyla bones they become sharp wen the dog chews them, i gave myself a wee scratch/cut just picking one up so no way would i let my girls have them.


If I gave Flo a soft rubber ball she would eat it within 5 minutes A friend brought a squeaky rolled up newspaper rubber toy for her birthday and within a few minutes she had eaten a hole in it and swallowed the squeaker.


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## caradunne (Nov 29, 2010)

Hi Natasha - interesting user name! Do you like to bake cakes?

Izzy loves the squeeky tennis balls in the garden and has a soft toy to cuddle indoors. This is a photo of her as a baby with her first one, she is now on her 5th, and has loved them all!!!!









She loves tug toys but is not so interested in chew toys. Likes to play 'find it'. I got this from Victoria Stillwell (can't spell it). Three plastic beakers on the floor and put a treat under one, the game is to find it!
xx


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## baking mama (Jul 11, 2010)

caradunne said:


> Hi Natasha - interesting user name! Do you like to bake cakes?
> 
> Izzy loves the squeeky tennis balls in the garden and has a soft toy to cuddle indoors. This is a photo of her as a baby with her first one, she is now on her 5th, and has loved them all!!!!
> 
> ...


I do like to bake cakes yes ! I even made Freddy one for his 1st birthday! (with dog friendly ingredients)

Excellent idea, I will definitely try your "find it" beaker game. We make Freddy sit and wait and hide one of his toys somewhere in the room and then tell him to "find it Freddy". He gets very excited and usually goes straight to the place where we have hidden it!


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## caradunne (Nov 29, 2010)

He he, cockapoo life is such fun! I like to make cakes as well and am making myself one for Izzy's first birthday - hadn't thought of making her one, will definately have a go.
Another rewarding game is to teach your dog the names of his toys. Izzy knows 5 different names and can get the right toy. It takes a bit of repitition but they catch on pretty quickly and is quite impressive. xx


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## Tressa (Aug 31, 2010)

Gosh, your 'poos all sound a lot cleverer than mine - naughty me for not spending more time training him  Must make sure he catches up pronto!


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## baking mama (Jul 11, 2010)

caradunne said:


> He he, cockapoo life is such fun! I like to make cakes as well and am making myself one for Izzy's first birthday - hadn't thought of making her one, will definately have a go.
> Another rewarding game is to teach your dog the names of his toys. Izzy knows 5 different names and can get the right toy. It takes a bit of repitition but they catch on pretty quickly and is quite impressive. xx


I got the recipe for Freddy's cake from Your Dog magazine. It was actually more like a scone than a cake (although it was meant to come out like a muffin). Don't laugh, but I made 4 little cakes for Freddy to eat and one giant one just for the photo!! We did let him tuck in to the giant one just after we took the pic though, and boy did he tuck in!!

I will definitely try the toy thing. I have just always referred to his toy as "toy", I didn't realise he might be able to distinguish different names. Mind you, he certainly knows the word "treat" so I suppose I shouldnt be surprised!!


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## caradunne (Nov 29, 2010)

I have been told they have the capacity to learn hundreds of words (old brain, can't remember how many hundreds). One guy's dog can pick out any toy by name from a big pile on the floor! Izzy isn't that advanced! I have taught her quite a lot of words just through using the same word every time and not using long sentences - a bit like teaching a toddler! She knows all the family by name, all the rooms in the house, some toys, food, treat, outside, walk etc not so keen on 'heel', 'drop it' or 'leave it'!!! xx


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## baking mama (Jul 11, 2010)

caradunne said:


> I have been told they have the capacity to learn hundreds of words (old brain, can't remember how many hundreds). One guy's dog can pick out any toy by name from a big pile on the floor! Izzy isn't that advanced! I have taught her quite a lot of words just through using the same word every time and not using long sentences - a bit like teaching a toddler! She knows all the family by name, all the rooms in the house, some toys, food, treat, outside, walk etc not so keen on 'heel', 'drop it' or 'leave it'!!! xx


Wow, that is amazing! I think I will get practising! I can't have Freddy falling behind


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## embee (Dec 27, 2010)

caradunne said:


> I have been told they have the capacity to learn hundreds of words (old brain, can't remember how many hundreds). One guy's dog can pick out any toy by name from a big pile on the floor! Izzy isn't that advanced! I have taught her quite a lot of words just through using the same word every time and not using long sentences - a bit like teaching a toddler! She knows all the family by name, all the rooms in the house, some toys, food, treat, outside, walk etc not so keen on 'heel', 'drop it' or 'leave it'!!! xx


I have also heard about the dog who can find a named toy from around 200 in a pile. More interestingly if a new toy is added to the pile and the dog is asked to go get the new toy using a name it's never heard then it will go get the new toy as it can figure out that the new name must mean the new toy. My problem with this trick is that I don't think I could remember the names of 200 toys myself!!!!!!!!


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## JulesB (Mar 6, 2011)

With Betty its all about tennis balls! So much so when she is at my parents we have to speoll out B A L L rather than say it as she gets so excited!!

She does always have two cuddly, squeakyt pink pigs in her bed as she likes to rest her head on them.

There was a black labrador that could do find the treat at puppy training-not tried it with betty yet, but she does give me left or right paw if asked!!


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## H&B (Dec 21, 2010)

Buster loves Natasha and always has from the day we got him. He is now 10 months and still loves them. He cuddles them in bed and then in the day he chews them. We have just brought a king kong with a weight in the bottom that you can fill with food and then they have to knock it out, he seems to like this and it keeps him entertained  x


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## Enneirda. (Mar 5, 2010)

'Lo's a fetch nut, so her favorite toy is anything that can be thrown and is easy to pick back up!


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