DOG ATTACKS ( do some dog toys make them worse )

Hi Shona :smt039
Sounds quite sensible to me, although I've never thought of it before. Teaches them something important. Really, they are your dogs so you should be able to train them how you like if it's not hurting anyone
My last dog Bailey, he wasn't allowed to play with soft toys much because he got really excitable and possesive with them. So I just let him have short supervised play. It's up to you what you give your dog, they won't think you are being mean

Hello there - at one of our first dog training classes the trainer was quite insistent that we do not buy 'squeaky' type toys for our dogs, especially as we have children. His reasoning was that the noise made by these toys is similar to the noises made by young children and may confuse the dogs as to what squeaky things it is OK to chew on

Needless to say our dogs toys are of the non squeaky type - just in case.

Im not sure actually. I teach my dogs to have respect for their toys. I have one pink lamb that squeaks and I call Flopsy so my dogs know when flopsy comes out they can snuggle her.
My bitch is the main contender for Flopsey she adores her but does it no harm just likes it to talk (squeak) to her so she can nuzzle and howl at it. Its very endearing to watch.But I wont allow them to take Flopsey away as I think she deserves respect. Does that make sense?
I have a 17 week old kitten running around and rules the roost, but would never dream of leaving her without being supervised, dogs have a natural instinct still in them to hunt like pack animals whatever breed they are. Poodle, chihuahua, Spanial. toys bring out that instinct to me.

Never really thought about squeeky toys like that b4 but makes a lot of sense that Doug.

Ive read in several places that playing tug can encourage aggression in some dogs.

I remember a while ago being told of a young girl who was attacked by her relative neopolitan(sp) mastiff, apparentlly the dog had attacked her by latching onto her very long platted hair...and i remember hearing the owners saying how they found it a coinicidence that for a few weeks before they had been playing rag games with a long platted rope toy..and then the dog attacks this child who was skipping down the path, hair swinging.
So no Shona, I wouldnt think you were being stupid/mean.

Squeaky toys do tap into a dog's "killing" instinct. Dog's are, by their very nature, opportunistic hunter, scavengers. We can, and should, strongly discourage it but we'll never remove it completely, It's what makes a dog a dog; it's basic biological survival for them.

All my dogs have loved squeaky toys (supervised play of course to avoid over excitement and swallowing a squeak or stuffing) and all their non-squeaky toys and have known the difference between their toys and any other items lying around my home. Even my 5 month old already knows what's hers and what's not.

If she can tell this difference then I'm confident she'll know the difference between a squeaky toy and a child's arm :smt002. And if a child's arm does ever end up in her mouth, it's the fault of my poor training/management rather than any toys I give her.

That said, there's lots of different toy and play options out there and I'm sure your doggies get plenty of both Shona

Cheers
Sammymax

When I was small we had a poodle who got so excited by squeaky toys he would fit. No squeaky toys, no more fits.

Now we don't have any squeaky toys purely because:

1. They don't last 2 minutes in this house.
2. We have guinea pigs who squeak and the dogs are gentle with them when supervised, so wouldn't want to ruin that.
3. I can't stand the sound when they go mad with them!

But it makes sense because we all know that when dogs get really excited all common sense goes out the window sometimes, so yes I'd agree with you and no you're not being mean at all.

You are not being mean, you know your dogs best of all

Mine get squeaky toys but they dont usually last much longer than an hour in this house. They can tell the difference between the toy and having a wrestle with my youngest son who has a high pitched laugh when he plays with them. Its amazing to watch these two strong dogs be so gentle with my son.