OMG never thought of that one!!! just running off to collect the various rope toys in the garden
the poor girl
thanks luke

I must say i've never thought of that myself ,but haveing read your post i think its possible,certainly something to consider when buying toys in the future.

Must admit I had never, ever thought of this, but what a brilliant mind you've got to have thought of it, makes sense doesn't it? I must admit, none of my dogs has ever been interested in any sort of toys, only their rubber balls, even though I've bought loads and loads and tried to get them to play with them, they're all taken down the rescue centre after Christmas unused. I think you might have something here, it stands to reason doesn't it, especially with what Luke wrote in his post?

I think I'd rather have an outlet for my dog (which I can control) than risk that one day the innate hard wired behaviour will arise and be totally out of my control, although from my point of view I'm talking about chasing and toys to chase after (eg kongs/balls on ropes) rather than squeaky toys.

I understand the view behind the debate and think it's a valid point

Re tuggie, my dog plays tuggie and sometimes I allow her to win, sometimes she pulls hard and does win but ultimately she always does as i ask with the tuggie as with other toys.It's easy if the dog is trained in Leave, give, fetch, bring, or whatever commands are suitable. I believe if a dog is well trained then playing is under control, so have always done my level best to instill good manners whilst playing

I know of a BC who had a huge number of squeaky toys, he lived for them and "herded" them

My dogs are taught to ignore people and therefore would take no notice of screaming kids or flying plaits. If a kid screams they look in that direction to see whats going on, but certainly would not approach.
As for tuggies I agree with wysiwyg teach manners at all times during play, teach them to give, leave, bring it here, pick it up. I allow mine to win sometimes, they bring it straight back to play again. However they only play these games with me and the OH. If a stranger waved a tuggy in their face they would look to me first and if told to leave they would do so.
Squeaky toys don't generally last long but they are certainly allowed to play with them, they love tormenting each other with them. If my 2year old grand daughter had the squeaky ball they would not attempt to take it off her, as soon as she appears they stop what they are doing and settle down.
So again, we come down to training, boundaries and limitations. Dogs need rules and personally I think a dog that has never been allowed to play with squeaky toys and tuggys will probably show more interest in them than a dog that has been taught to play in a controlled manner, and a dog that has never been taught to leave the squeaky toy on demand will be harder to part from something that squeaks than a dog that has been trained to do so.

Part of the argument in favour of tug is that it isn't a win/lose thing, but replicates the behaviour of the wild-dog pack "dismantling" their prey, so is actually a co-operative game. Sometimes I let Bongo have the toy, then start off a game of chase with the cue: "Iiiii'm gonna getchooo!" It's brilliant fun, and you should see her tail shoot up when she hears those words