Tips on encouraging play?

Charlie is nearly 10 months old, so not as young as most of the pups on here, but he's a rescue dog and has missed out on a stable early puppyhood. I'm his first permanent home and I've had him for 6 weeks.

He's a well adjusted little chap considering his less than ideal start in life. He's great with other dogs, big and small, and seems to know instinctively how much rough-housing he can get away with. When another dog says enough and gives him a nip, he yelps and walks sadly over to me for a cuddle! He loves his walks and begs to join in if he sees some kids playing (he's got two playdates with my young nieces this week!).

What has got me a little bamboozled is that he doesn't seem to know how to play with toys! I've not adopted an older pup before, and young pups seem to know how to play!

He's got the typical Staffy jaw and can destroy most dog things within half an hour. His favourite thing is chewing so he has various animal and plastic bones. If you give him a ball he will destroy it rather than play with it (destroying toys IS playing in his eyes!) so I got him a solid rubber ball and a bigger one he can't destroy, but playing football and catch isn't as much fun apparently. He has soft toys with squeaks in them, but gets bored of them once he's ripped the squeak out. I give him his dry food in a kong treat ball, and he has a peanut butter kong at night time. I give him cardboard boxes with a few treats inside for him to rummage in and rip up.

I often forget that he's still a puppy because he seems such an old soul!

Staffies are destroyers, that is fun to them! Why run for it when you can kill it haha my girl is not into games or toys at all so i can't help.

Daisy is also a rescue and didn't know what to do with toys at first, she wasn't even interested to rip them up!! So I was quite proud when she destroyed her first toy

I have just found that by spending time having playtime with her she has figured it out, I've run around like a mad person with the toys, thrown them about, rolled around on the floor with her!!

She will now just about play fetch, I have bribed her with treats for that!

But by far her favourite is tug of war, she would literally play for hours with me! When she wants to play she brings something over shaking it about in her mouth and barking at me to play!!

Don't know if any of that will help, some dogs just arn't bothered for play but keep trying

Hayley & Sazzle, pleased to see that it isn't just my boy! He's currently shredding one of the cat's toys.

I like the idea of running around the house like a loon with toys! He loves chasing things so that may trigger his playtime! Thanks!

Suki is about the same way but destroying things is fun for her. We will also use stuffed animals as toys and once she has ripped them up they become tug of war toys to finish them off

Drifter McFluff wrote:Hayley & Sazzle, pleased to see that it isn't just my boy! He's currently shredding one of the cat's toys.

I like the idea of running around the house like a loon with toys! He loves chasing things so that may trigger his playtime! Thanks!

Hope it works, let us know how you get on

Just wanted to to share a small idea on fetch...

Our instructor gave us a tube with a lid and you put treats inside, shake it around get the dog excited about it and when the dog picks it up ask to give, open it up and give a treat. Although this game doesn't last long with Otis' jaws But maybe it may spark an idea Good luck, sounds like he is already a lovely boy.

Ooo that does sounds like fun

Vinnies fave is tug games, but he does like to be chased, I think its all in the excitement of your voice, but the tube with the treats as mentioned above sounds like a great idea

Brilliant ideas, I love the tube idea! Thanks!

How have you been getting on?

Not too badly thank you. When he went on the steroids he started to become much more playful, I didn't realise just how irritated he was by his itching.

He's definitely a destroyer of toys, so I got him one of those HUGE tennis balls from Sports Direct. He can't get his jaws into that one as easily, so he has to chase it around the garden if he wants to pin it down. It's so funny to watch him bound around.

Another thing I've found is that he prefers other dogs' toys to his own, my parents house was scattered with their dog toys - they are much more fun than mine - despite most being identical.

Yeah Daisy always wants everyone elses toys at my parent, resulting in a few fights

If he loves to chase you can make great toy for him by attaching a ball or soft toy to a lunge whip and whirl it around for him so he can chase it, and because you have control over it he can't run off with the toy and destroy it!
If he doesn't tug you can teach him to, just reward him with something he loves for tugging or even a small bit of interaction with a tug toy at first (eg food or another toy). For example my boxer Rikki wasn't really into tugging, but she loves balls and in particular these soft latex squeaky balls, so I took her favourite ball, put a hole through it, threaded a pair of tights through it, to make it a ball/tug toy, then every time she took the toy in her mouth I rewarded her by throwing it, I build it up bit by bit so she was eventually tugging on the toy, now she LOVES tug and will play tug with anything, socks, teatowels, you name it lol
Also remember you don't have him that long and when he settles in a bit more he's likely to get more playful, best of luck with him he's a cutie

Try interacting with him with a toy to show him what can be done with it.. Throwing it up in the air and rolling etc.. a ball that he can't get his mouth around might be worth getting as he will go mad chasing it around to get it.. Molly will get herself entertained by throwing things for herself and chasing her ball. When she gets bored she will bring it to us to play with her..lol

Good news, today he figured out how to play with his tug of war toy - something clicked in his brain and he said "i know what to do!" and dragged me around the room! :D

Yay , if he's anything like Daisy he'll be brining it to you to play all the time now!!

I had to take it out of reach for a while, as, typical Staffy, he decided to try and chew it to bits afterwards..

Yep that's play time staffy style!!

Ah that's great to hear! there'll be no stopping him now!