Sharing toys.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Sharing toys.

    So when I brought Finn home, one of my main concerns was to prevent any bahavioral issues with toys and food among the dogs.  At first Finn had a slight problem regarding food and he would growl when other dogs would come near him when he ate or even if he was getting treats.  However, when we started training I used his food and hand fed him and that behavior disappeared very quickly.  He has also never had problems regarding toys, which is something I was concerned about.  In fact, he likes to share his toys with Max.  It is actually rather cute. 

    I have quite a few of those hard bones you can buy with the stuffing in them...not sure what they're called, and the boys chew them when they feel like it.  Finn will chew one and then take it to Max, Max will take it and then Finn will watch him chew it, when Max leaves the bone, Finn picks it up again and chews it or tries to give it back to Max (and he sometimes tries to tug with Max with the bone).  He will also bring the bone to me and want me to either hold it while he chews or tug with him.  I have never seen this before and it fascinates me.  He will do this when I bring out the tug toys as well.  He takes it to Max and encourages Max to tug with him, if I quit the game too soon for his liking.

    I am just glad there aren't any issues between them and glad that Max enjoys the games the puppy brings to him!  Has anyone ever had dogs who do this?  Just curious and I think I am just thrilled that everyone gets along so nicely.  Finn fits right in like a missing puzzle piece. Smile

    Here are some pictures of them sharing a bone and watching each other (they are camera phone pics and kind of dark, sorry):

    Excuse the size, I am trying to figure out how to use Flickr...

    • Gold Top Dog

    My dogs also share toys, 99% of the time with no issues.  Sometimes both the houligans can get guardy....but I don't allow it.  They both will bring a toy to the other inviting play...most especially with the tugs.  I too think it is very cute.  I feel lucky that they get along so well and that I don't have to worry too much about them getting ugly with toys.  But, not just luck, I should give myself credit for their behavior.  Wink

    Here's the most recent picture of my two sharing space...sorry...its a picture from the cell phone:

     

    • Gold Top Dog
    Hmm. I wonder if maybe it's because mine were introduced as adults, but they generally don't share 'stuff' or even space. They don't scuffle over it, it's more like they are neutral towards each other. I'm not complaining though! I can do neutral, especially with two terriers.
    • Gold Top Dog

    Twister and Rex share and initiate play with toys and swap like you descibed. Belle doesn't have the best doggy social skills and she's closely monitored around resources.   With high value stuff, I separate all the dogs to avoid any problems. 

    • Gold Top Dog

     The girls share toys without any problems. Bones and such... it depends on the mood. When I was recovering from my surgery, they were fine chewing bones laying around the house. Once 'recovery time' was over, all bones were picked up again and are only given in their crates.

    • Gold Top Dog

    The one thing I am super careful with are stuffed kongs.  They love them way too much to be allowed together with them.  Max and Benny are ok in a room together (supervised) because they will keep to themselves, but Finn goes to his crate.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Kivi Tarro and Erik share pretty well as long as it's just toys. In fact, their favourite game is to wrestle toys and other objects out of each other's mouth. If Erik wants to play with Kivi, he will literally take a toy to Kivi and force it into his mouth! Poor KT.

    This morning they found a large monkey puppet on the side of the road as we're having a roadside cleanup next week. They both decided it was the best toy they'd ever laid eyes on and started playing with it right there on the side of the road. Kivi wanted to shake it, but then Erik also wanted to shake it, so they had a grumble about it. I call them slap fights, because they remind me so strongly of those slap fights you'd have with your siblings when you were a kid where you would hit each other just hard enough to hurt and cause retaliation. Kivi and Erik bite each other just hard enough to annoy each other. That's as nasty as they get to each other.

    Food is different. They get a stuffed Kong or something similar every morning when we leave them, and we suspect that Erik is taking Kivi's and hoarding it because Kivi will let him and he will certainly try it. There's not much we can do about it. We wouldn't separate them all day as they are best pals, but nor would we give them nothing to keep them busy when we are leaving... 

    • Gold Top Dog

    I always thought my dogs "shared" toys until I borrowed a 9 week old puppy, only to find out that my older dogs never cared about the toys so Nikon grew up thinking they belong to him, lol.  Having the puppy around was a great opportunity for teaching Nikon to share, and more importantly that the toys are all MINE so I decide who gets them and when.  After a few days with some intervention, he realized that the puppy was harmless and he began bringing toys TO her instead of taking them all and hiding them.

    In general, I've always had lots of toys.  I have a toy box in the house and on the porch, so the dogs are free to take the toys they want.  The toys I use for training I keep away, but only because Nikon would chew and destroy them.  We do most of his training with a ball on a string.  He pulled several balls off before I learned how to modify the toy.  He has these balls around the house and plays with them on his own all day.  I use the same one for training and have never had any issues like him having less drive because he has balls around the house.  We also have stuffy toys the dogs tug on with each other, and I have no problems using a tug for training I just don't want my expensive French linen tugs ripped open by the dogs.

    • Gold Top Dog

    corvus
    Food is different. They get a stuffed Kong or something similar every morning when we leave them, and we suspect that Erik is taking Kivi's and hoarding it because Kivi will let him and he will certainly try it. There's not much we can do about it. We wouldn't separate them all day as they are best pals, but nor would we give them nothing to keep them busy when we are leaving... 

     

    Aren't dogs so different? Luci and Sam come bounding out for breakfast and.. ask for cuddles first. Food is not a fighting issue but bones can be.

    Toys can be pretty cute with them. They are very inventive and work out weird ways with stuff to amuse themselves. I don't let them have a huge number of toys when i am not there as i rely heavily on toys as reinforcers. They have some boring ones. I left a roll of 3 inch wide caution tape accidently and they were playing tug with it and pulled it into small pieces.

    Just before Christmas,Sam got a shoe of mine and took it outside and then to bed with him. When i got home he was asleep cuddling it. Luci was cuddling him...

     

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    Sadie and Timmy share toys.  They will often play with a rope or stuffed toy together, when we have them.  Timmy destroys them so often, we don't usually have them.  Timmy has a bunch of rubber balls he will play with on his own with us, Sadie doesn't seem interested in them.  She's never been very interested in rubber toys though, even as a puppy.  Timmy definately plays with toys more than Sadie though, he has these two blue rubber balls that he loves for us to throw for him. 

    They don't share bones.  We learned that lesson very quickly.  Probably once every other month or something they will each get huge bones, or knuckles, but they only get these at night.  Sadie sleeps in a crate at night and chews away and Timmy sleeps on the floor, around the foot of our bed.  They got into one fight over the bones and we had to pull them apart, no harm was done to either dog, but one is always crated when the bones come out now.  

    Kongs, they each have their own and eat their own kong with no issues.  Food, Sadie is now crated to eat.  We just recently started supplementing their kibble and Sadie started trying to steal food from Timmy, so we started crating her to eat.  

    • Gold Top Dog

     Emma and Bean shared food, toys, bones, and chewies. They often played games together, trading off toys, and never chewed a treat alone. They were best buds. Bean liked her chews softened, and Emma liked it that she always got the "bigger" treat.

     

    Jewel doesn't play with toys, and isn't interested in sharing anything else, LOL.