Selecting the Best Toys to Motivate and Train Your Performance Dog

By Denise Fenzi

Schutzhund and flyball trainers have long known about the power of toys—but with the advent of agility, using toys has become more and more popular among performance dog trainers. Nowadays trainers in every dog sport are using toys to motivate their dogs’ best possible performances.

Trainers have observed that the fastest dogs with the most drive and endurance are those working for toys rather than food. This belief in the power of toys and "tug drive" has become so prevalent that some trainers work exclusively with toys for reward. While not really a drive in the technical sense, high "tug drive" means a dog is very motivated to play with a tug toy with the handler. The root of "tug drive" is prey drive and fight drive — a dog’s urge to chase and catch prey.

Pick the Right Toy

While trainers are excited about the potential that toys bring to a training program, there are two basic issues to contend with: first, selecting the right toy for the particular dog, and second, motivating the dog to play with the toy. This article addresses the first of these issues — how to select the right toy for a given dog. I will provide specific options and recommendations for appropriate toys, so you can make educated decisions about what’s best for your dogs, instead of using a trial-and-error approach. My focus is on choosing toys for training agility, flyball, and competition obedience.

Understanding which toys to use and why is critical, because many dogs will play tug only if the right toys are used at the correct point in the dogs’ training development. Many handlers have proclaimed that their dog lacks "tug drive" when in reality, the dog simply needs different toys or a different form of engagement from the handler.

The age or breed of dog is pretty much irrelevant to the training progression or selection of toys — except to match up very small dogs such as toy breeds with proportionally smaller toys. Otherwise, you can follow the same progression for starting off an eight-week-old puppy as you would for an adult dog who’s just beginning tug training.

Toys for Building Drive

First, begin by considering the degree to which your dog expresses "prey drive" with toys. Prey drive is a dog’s reaction to a fast moving object; it’s not necessarily about the dog’s reaction to live prey. A dog with good prey drive is easily attracted to a moving object and pays careful attention to the trajectory of that object. If the object continues to move, the movement rivets the dog. The dog may or may not pursue or bite the object. As a general rule, puppies have better prey drive than adult dogs who haven’t had specific prey development training.

Dogs with low prey drive need to have this interest built; the appropriate toys are called "drive building" toys. The ideal toy for these dogs is long, "whippy" in construction (as opposed to stiff), and easy for the handler to manipulate — for example, so that you can imitate the motion of a fleeing rabbit. Because the goal is for the dog to bite the toy, a drive-building toy should, generally, be made of a thin material which is easy to grab. Examples of toys used to incite prey drive are:

Toy with fleece tops and many leather pieces hanging (for example, the Fenzi Frenzy/Robit)
Leather puppy rags — chamois type or jute material at least 18" long
Fleece toys or toys with real fur made with a pouch for food inside. Most of the time I find that the food is a distraction, but it may be worth a try with dogs who don’t respond to other options.

Any toy with a textured exterior surface which is easy to grab and has plenty of length to create fast and intense action is a good choice. Avoid toys with slippery outer bite surfaces such as synthetic "Riot Sticks" made of smooth fire hose, because they’re too difficult for a young dog to bite and they lack "whippiness." Jute, French linen (the same material used to make bite suits for protection dogs), and textured fire hose toys (as opposed to Riot Sticks) all have good outer bite surfaces, but avoid ones that are short and stuffed tight and hard with fiberfill. Although a dog can grip these toys with his teeth, the stiff, short construction makes the toys difficult to use to incite a prey reaction and they don’t allow a novice dog to bite down with a strong grip. An exception is a dog with a strong bite but low prey drive — in this case, a stiff, textured toy with a ring attached to a leash can be the right solution. Jute rags are acceptable for drive building, but avoid them if they appear to get caught in your dog’s teeth.

If your dog is an avid retriever but doesn’t show the same enthusiasm for playing tug, there are toys available that are designed for both — that is, first you throw, and then you tug. Examples are balls attached to a rope (Gripper balls, tennis balls or hard rubber balls on a strap, Kongs on a rope, etc.), Frisbees (for example, the Gripper Flipper made of jute or various flying discs made of nylon or rubber). I recommend you avoid toys with tennis balls because of the wear they put on your dog’s teeth. Likewise, with Frisbee-type toys: soft nylon or jute is fine, but hard plastic disks just aren’t appropriate for games of tug. Keep in mind that you can’t control the trajectory of a toy on a rope nearly as effectively as a toy designed for tug and drive building, so use these "flingable" toys as a last resort.

A Question of Confidence

Another consideration is your dog’s confidence level. Let’s say your dog shows lots of interest in toys as prey but shows little interest in grabbing and possessing the toys — in other words, the dog has some prey drive but isn’t very confident yet. In this case, the most important factors for selecting a toy are the length of the toy and the texture of the exterior surface. A dog who’s low in confidence needs to work away from the handler, so you’ll want a long toy (or a shorter toy on a leash) which you can throw away from your body. If you use a toy on a leash, the surface should be very easy to grip — a soft toy with a lot of "squish" in the dog’s mouth is ideal. For young dogs, or dogs who have lower levels of confidence, a soft French linen or textured leather toy with light fill is often perfect. Also, the toys mentioned above for building prey drive (Frenzy/Robits, leather or jute rags, fleece snakes) also work well for building confidence and getting the dog to bite and grab a moving toy. Jute Frisbees (Gripper Flipper) are also easy to bite and are effective for dogs who want to chase and tug, but don’t yet have the confidence for a hard or stiff bite toy.

Picking Toys for Training

Once your dog shows a strong interest in following and grabbing at a moving toy, it’s time to introduce training toys as opposed to "drive-building toys."

Drive-building toys are almost always long and whippy with soft, squishy bite surfaces or thin, textured surfaces. While excellent for engaging the dog’s interest in play, they’re awkward for training — their length makes them hard to carry during work, and their lack of stiffness can make it difficult to present the toy without getting your fingers caught in the dog’s bite.

Training toys, by contrast, are shorter and have a stiffer construction, making them convenient for carrying and presenting to your dog safely. So you might see tugs made of various materials — jute (usually with carpet padding or fiber fill) or French linen; leather (again, with varying kinds of fill and texture); and synthetic toys of varying lengths and widths.

All of these types can be used in group training classes because the dog no longer requires prey motion to incite him to play. In general, the softer the fill and the more textured the exterior of the toy, the easier it is to motivate the dog to accept as a training reward.

Switching to the Training Toy

The easiest way to switch from drive building to training toys is to attach the toy to a leash or long line, and initially use the new toy to mimic the drive-building toys discussed earlier. You’ll probably find the transition is easier if the outer material of the new toy is the same as the outer material on the drive-building toy. So, for example, if you used a leather training rag in your drive-building work, use a textured leather training tug with light fill for your first training toy.

When the dog is at the point where just the sight of the toy alone causes great excitement without the accompanying prey action, you can remove the leash from the toy. If the dog consistently goes for the handle rather than the toy, consider a toy with a small ring sewn into the end, rather than a handle.

Dogs with a lot of "fight drive" love to play a game of tug with their handler. These dogs generally do well with a variety of toys of different materials — and the choice of materials depends on how hard the dog bites down on the toy. Dogs with high fight drive can be hard or soft biters, or fall somewhere in between. The amount of fill or hardness of the toy should depend on how hard your dog likes to clamp down on the toy.

Toys for Hard Bites

Dogs with very hard bites should be using a hard toy with a hard inner core, especially if the dog tends to thrash the toy when you’re trying to control it. So you might try rolled toys of smooth leather or jute (no fill), or jute toys with heavy fill, or synthetic toys with slippery (fire hose Riot Stick) or rough (fire hose – textured) biting surfaces, or French linen toys with enough fill to make them feel very hard in the hand. Toys designed for Schutzhund dogs such as leather, jute, or synthetic toys with wide diameter biting surfaces and hard fill are also appropriate. As a bonus, toys for hard-biting dogs tend to hold up very well over the long run.

Toys for Soft Bites

If your dog has a soft bite but plenty of fight drive, consider a toy with a softer exterior with good texture and a soft fill, such as soft rolled leather (no fill), soft leather with a narrow diameter and light fill, or a toy with imitation fur on the outside, but a stiffer construction (for ease of training) on the inside. Fleece exteriors are fine, but it can be difficult to find a fleece toy with the rigid core desired in a training toy.

Shredders?

Some dogs like to take their toys away and shred them by themselves. These dogs have little or no interest in returning with the toy. For these dogs, select stitched or rolled toys made of leather or jute with no fill. The lack of filling helps to discourage — but not eliminate — the shredding behaviors.

Summing Up

In summary, keep in mind these points when looking for a toy:

Toys with textured exteriors (rough leather, French linen, jute) are easier to bite than toys with smooth exteriors ("riot sticks", smooth leather). Easy bite surfaces are more motivating to dogs with low prey drive or soft biting dogs.
Toys with light fill or soft, rolled leather are easier to bite than toys with heavy fill. These are best for young dogs or softer biting dogs.
Toys with no fill (hard, rolled leather or jute) are harder to bite. These are a good choice for dogs with well-developed prey drive, a hard biting style or "shredders".
Longer toys with "whippy" action are more motivating than short toys as prey objects. Use long toys for drive building, and use short toys on a leash to bridge the gap between drive building and training toys.
Dogs with well-developed prey drive and interest in playing with you are ready to use toys as a training reward. Select short, stiff toys as a convenient training toy.

In the end, you want to develop a dog’s drive to bite to the point where they will work extremely hard for a chance to bite a toy. Dogs with well-developed toy drive are a pleasure to train. They tend to be well-focused on their work and are easy to motivate. They don’t require toys that are awkward to carry, and the amount of handler effort in a play session is very reasonable. All that is required is a small investment in a few well-chosen toys of progressively greater difficulty and a few minutes a day of focused training time. It’s well worth it!