squeaky toys?

There is an extensive train of thought that working dogs should not have squeakers or tuggy toys.

The trainer I am working with does not follow this advice and Chase has had raggers, tuggers and squeakers (rubber ones not furry ones) and he has certainly never tried to squeak his dummies, play tuggy with them and he was equally good on both the cold and warm game he has had, very nicely mouthed.

I like playing with my dogs and feel it helps build a relationship with the dog, they don't however have loads of toys to play with when I am not with them, play is part of interaction between us. (This is partly cos Freddy is a manipulative swine and doesn't play nicely with his 'brothers' when toys are out, one spaniel has been seen lying over the whole toy stash to guard them all

). I also control when play starts and ends so by building self-control in a play environment you are building a skill that will be needed in the field which is even more stimulating than a good play session.

Us Sterenniks dont have squicky toys TOO much noise but the do have soft toys old teddies.
All my puppies leave home with a soft toy which they have had playing and sleeping with and they all love them they walk around with them in their mouths,
They have other toys and play tug with each other but not with me if they bring anything to me I make it a retrive but always give it back to them.
We play the game hide and seek where I hide them all in the garden and they go and find them and put them in the toy box.

If you train your dog right they willknow the differance between fun and games and working

The reason serious gundog trainers do not use squeaky toys is because the dog usually has to bite down on the toy to elicit the squeak.

There are two problems with this. One is that it encourages a pleasure in ‘biting down’ which may or may not be carried over to other items. The second is that occasionally a wounded rabbit may squeal when being retrieved. The worry is that this could trigger a bite.

Obviously there have been no scientific trials to prove one way or the other that biting down in play might be related to biting down on retrieve items, and a lot of obedience trainers will tell you that they encourage all sorts of biting and tugging games with no signs of a resulting ‘hard mouth’ in their dog.

However, ‘hard mouth’ can only be diagnosed once a dog is retrieving game, when internal damage can be felt by an experienced handler. Many of the people I have spoken to that tell me their dogs are not hard mouthed as a result of such experiences, turn out to have no field experience and therefore do not yet know if the dog is hard mouthed or not.

Until more experienced gundog handlers allow such behaviour and we can observe the results in the field, we will not know if the offending games which gundog trainers abhor (tuggy and squeaky toys) are as disastrous as they are thought to be.

Because hard mouth is such a calamity in a working gundog, most serious trainers would not take the chance of causing it by allowing a dog a squeaky toy which has no benefit to the dog at all. It is safer to err on the side of caution if you wish to work your dog on game in the future.

Pippa