Building drive for the "wubba"

Keiko has a blue puppy "wubba" toy, pictured below.

I realized the other day that while she would play with her toys inside, she quickly lost interest in them outside. I decided that this was a problem, mainly because I am planning to train her for a job (whether that ends up being search and rescue or herding) and it is important that she has a drive for toys - primarily for the SAR training. I also decided this was a bit of a problem because I enjoy playing fetch and other games that involve with toys my dog but if I have a pup that doesn't have much desire to play with toys outside (or at all), that would seriously hamper my ability to enjoy the activities I like to do with my pup.   I also prefer to do a majority of my training with toys as opposed to with treats.  Luckily, I have a puppy! Which means that my dog is still open to being molded and also means that some things just have to be taught to her - i.e. HOW to play with certain toys!

So I decided that I would begin making a more serious effort to build her toy drive. Many puppies don't take to playing with toys outside because their owners only play with them inside. So I have switched to only playing with toys with Keiko (for now it's just the wubba) outside. Inside, she gets either her puppy kong or her chilly bone and those are just to keep her company in her crate/to help ease her poor gums as she gets into the teething stage. Otherwise, if we are going to play with a toy we go outside to do so.

How I'm beginning to build drive
My first session began with me taking Keiko out into the backyard to potty. At this point, she hadn't played with a toy inside since yesterday. I hid the wubba in my back pocket. Once Keiko pottied, I produced the wubba from my back pocket. I got her attention, squeezed it a few times in rapid succession, and asked in a high voice "you want it? You want it? You want it?" This has been the phrase that comes naturally to me as I try to build her excitement over whatever I have in my hand. Then I wiggled it a bit so that the long pieces of fabric flapped about. When I knew I had her attention (her eyes were bright, big, and on me, and her ears were pressed forward) I drew the toy down to the ground, squeaked it, and dragged it about a foot across the ground in front of her. As I did this, I shouted "get it!" which is the cue I've been giving her to go after her toy. She went after it and I let her "kill" it - she pounced and grabbed it. I immediately erupted into praise: "Good girl! Good Keiko! Good girl!" and I let her carry it around a bit. I took the toy and did this two more times. As usual, I got excited about the good response I was receiving and threw it a fourth time, which proved to be one too many. She went after the toy but didn't pick it up. She is a puppy and as such, was bored with the game. I resolved to make sure I didn't push it too far the next time.

We went out into the backyard a total of four times today. On the second time, I threw the toy three times following the same procedure. The only thing I changed is that I ran backwards, calling her to me while she carried the toy. All the while I made it exciting, using animated body language and a high-pitched voice to indicate that I liked what she was doing. I concluded the second, third, and fourth sessions by letting her carry the toy back into the house and into my room.  Once in my room I took the toy and put it away until the next session.

In the third session, I tied a thin leash around the wubba to turn it into an improvised ball-on-string sort of toy. I plan on buying a couple of the Cuz balls and tying strings to them, but for now I will stick with what I have available to me. This made it much more convenient, as I could extend the distance I dragged the toy without being directly attached to it or having Keiko target my hand or legs as opposed to the toy (which she has done in the past). Each session I would throw it about three or four times, never pressing my luck and always having Keiko carry it back into the house and to my room. On the third time, I began playing a little tug with her.  I allowed her to win the tug and carry the toy around for a bit before I took it away. I decided that for the sake of building her toy drive, I could sacrifice the potential for creating any "hierarchy confusion" that may be involved in letting her win the game of tug of war for now. 

The fourth session was the last of the evening. Between the third and the fourth session, Keiko and I went on an hour walk down to a nearby park and back. I brought the wubba-on-a-string with me in a bag and went out to a bit of open field. I latched on her fifteen foot leash, let her explore the immediate area, then produced the wubba. I can already tell by the look in her eye that she is beginning to understand this game. She is more excited and focused on the toy, and goes after it more times. I played the game a bit in the field, then continued our walk on down the road. We got lucky and the cows were out by a fence we walked by. Well, my affinity for cattle and the fact that my puppy IS a herding dog and may have a future in herding...I just had to stop! Keiko looked at them like "what the heck are those?" at first, but we settled down beside the fence near some calves for a while and she kept trying to find a way under the fence to investigate. The calves were about four months old, and just as intrigued by us as Keiko was by them. It was a great experience and I'm really glad that I had the chance to introduce her to some livestock so close to us. After meeting the calves, we went on down the road where we played the wubba game again in another stretch of open field. This went well. On our walk back to the house, we crossed some rocky terrain which Keiko handled well so I was extremely pleased with our evening.

I will continue to post on building drive, as this is a very important topic and blogging will help me keep a good record of what works, doesn't work, and how we improve over time.  I will also try to get some pictures of the toy and Keiko with the toy, if I can.  Usually there is too much commotion for me to try and operate a camera and actually get a picture in action.

P.S. I apologize for less-than-decently worded passages and any hint of scatterbrained-ness in my posts.  One of my personal goals in maintaining this blog is that I become better able to express my my thoughts in coherent statements.