Saturday 31 August 2013

One day, I will say 'Go find Bouncy' and he will respond...

When I was young, my Grandma had a dog called Sandy.  I remember two things about her; she had a very human scream and a pink ball with a smiley face.  Sandy loved her pink ball so much that she became rather irritating with it.  In fact, she once irritated my Grandma so much with it, that she took it off her and put it on top of the fridge.  Sandy spent the rest of the day sitting by the fridge and staring hopefully until my Grandma had no choice but to give it back to her.

Caesar is the polar opposite.  Balls hold no excitement for him at all, which is odd considering how much he loves to chase other things.  Tug toys lose their appeal after seconds and you are left growling like a maniac and flapping your arms around with a redundant piece of rope.  Despite his lack of interest in toys, Caesar's toy box is full of tried and failed attempts to get him to play.  The only toys that he appears to have any interest in (aside from ones that contain food) is ones that are dangerous because he's broken them!  My Grandma, unaware of Caesar's strength of jaw, brought a pack of bright plastic balls for him to try.  Within seconds, he had crunched them into sharp shards of plastic, which we ran around trying to grab.  Annoyingly, these were the only things he wanted to play with!

And....?

A key problem is that many toys fall to pieces as soon as they see Caesar.  He has a way of breaking things and this isn't always accidental either!  I spend my time looking for hard wearing toys in pet shops.  Unfortunately, often, 'hard wearing' still isn't good enough for Caesar and he can waste through pounds worth of toys in seconds.  Perhaps the fastest record was the 'tiger tough tennis ball' priced at £3.  I gave him it, he took it from me carefully and two seconds later it was in pieces.  The other toy that he loved (mainly because it dispensed treats) was his 'Eggstraordinary Baffler' by Ruff and Tuff, unfortunately though it was neither rough nor tough enough for my mischievous mongrel who decided that, rather than knock it around in the hope that it may dispense treats, he would just bite through the plastic instead and steal all of the treats. I suppose it makes sense really...

 Caesar loved his 'Ruff and Tuff' "Eggstraordinary Baffler"
...but had destroyed it within hours of me giving it to him.

When I spotted 'Bouncy' who is actually a '3-Peaks Bounce Ball' in Pets at Home, I thought 'it's worth a try'.  The ball looked strong and durable and I'd love that to be the reason that I bought it but unfortunately it isn't.  The reason that I bought it is purely because it's EXTREMELY bouncy.  I bounced it in the floor of the shop and immediately fell in love.  It looked so much fun!  Unfortunately, Caesar is taking a little convincing, but he will chase it for treats.....sometimes.

Say hello to 'Bouncy'.  I will train Caesar
to like this ball.  Purely so that I can
use the command 'go find Bouncy!'


Is your dog a Sandy or a Caesar?  Do they love toys or are they completely indifferent about them?  Do they have a favourite toy?  Let me know with a comment.

Little bit of love:
A big thank you from Caesar and I to all our regular readers and all those who've taken the time to comment and contact me.  I've had a great response from you all and I have loved hearing about your own experiences.  If you would like to keep reading, I've added a subscription bar where you can subscribe using your email address, Google+ or a range of other fangled following things (you can always unsubscribe later if Caesar ever gets boring - sorry, not going to happen).  Big wags to all of you! 

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