When we adopted Riley in 2018, he didn’t know how to play. Let’s be clear, he still doesn’t really. Like, most dogs know they can go get their toys. They know tug of war. They might even naturally know fetch. Riley knew none of these.
Riley and Genkii snuggling on a heated blanket. Riley is only snuggling because of the blanket. Cats are to be ignored normally.
In 2018, he was terrified of squeaky toys. TERRIFIED. Would run out of the room if you squeaked it. Do you know how hard it is to find dog toys without squeakers that aren’t just rope?? We finally found a few which it was hard to squeak. I seriously considered just normal kids’ stuffed animals. He likes the fluffy ones, but no squeakers!
In 2023 he doesn’t necessarily hide from squeaky toys, but he thinks they are pretty offensive. He now takes the offending squeaked toy and puts in another room. Gently. Carefully. Removing it from the place which caused it to cry in pain maybe? Putting it in time out because it dared to make such offensive noises?
In 2018, Riley would NOT take a toy from us. You could hold it out, but he would just nose it and walk around wagging his tail (down, not up) until you put it down. When you finally released the toy, he would take it for a moment and then set it down immediately and nose it.
His first change occurred from our neighbor-behind-us. They have a grown kid with a (beautiful) German Shepard names Lucy. From their first moment, somehow these two fell in love. They look for each other. Apparently, when Lucy comes over, she immediately wants to go out back. She comes to the fence and barks.
And they run. They run the fence back and forth and back again. Now, you can look at the picture below and see: Riley is chunky and shorter than Lucy. She leaps forward. Riley can’t keep up. But he loves her nonetheless.
I have to credit my sister’s dog for the most growth on toys – Chidi is one of the most charismatic, friendly, sweetest, and empathic dogs I have ever met. He missed his calling as a therapist dog. He comes over and plays with Riley’s toys. Riley watches. He occasionally “rescues” a squeaked toy and takes it to another room. Mostly, he has watched Chidi tug.
Chidi LOVES tug-o-war. A toddler and a small dog are surprisingly evenly matched.
And slowly, over the last year-ish, Riley has begun to “tug” toys from us. I put it in quotes because he would still give up with any real resistance. I can hold a toy by my thumb and first finger and probably win. But he is beginning to learn to actually pull the toy from me. Slowly, he is giving it more strength as I encourage him and cheer him.
Riley was abused. We know the rescue group caught him living under a water tower. He has had food insecurity, he still acts terrified of tall men (my brother at 6’2″ gets a total pass because he gives all the pets all the time). Sunglasses trigger him. Strangers looking him in the eye triggers him. He is a super sweet dog who is terrified of many, many people. Learning to play has been a five-plus year process.
Dream by Day 