Well here it is, our list of weird tug toys suggestions. Thank you to everyone who contributed, we should all be proud! If any of these items spark another idea for any of you, send it along and I will continue to build the master list.
- Bungee tugs
- Crunch N Tug toy
- Your long braided hair (if you have it)
- Your hat
- Plastic shopping bag
- Sheep skin toys
- real leather
- Bird Feather with or without added scent
- Rabbit fur
- Deflated soccer ball
- Shower puff scrubber
- Water bottle (with or without small pebbles inside)
- Tug-It!
- A Stick
- A crumpled up piece of paper
- Your sleeve
- Cheap, dollar-store scarves
- Towels (tea towel, hand towel)
- Your Leash
- Flying Disc
- Golf Club head cover
- Old stirrup leather
- Feather duster
- Fly Swatter
- Shoe laces
- Empty toilet paper roll
- Empty Paper towel roll
- A shovel (ouch!)
- Dog Show Ribbons
- A Broom or wisk
- Hollee roller with a stuffed a rabbit fur mouse rubbed with rat litter
- Hollee roller with a tennis ball
- Hollee roller with a Ball with Feet (Cuz)
- Hollee roller with a mini flying disc
- Hollee roller with a babble ball
- Hollee roller with a mouse with a realistic chirp
- Dusting Mitt
- Piece of Rope
- Vacuum cleaner hose
- Winter mittens
- Hair scrunchie
- Dirty Underwear
- Dirty Sock
- Pillow case
- Well in bed move your hand around under the covers while your dog is on top of the covers (seems like a live animal under cover)
- Anything with Fringes on it
- Paper cup
- Paper plates
- Palm Frond
- Pantyhose with knots in them
- A sock with a tennis ball or squeaky toy stuffed & knotted inside
- Tissue paper braided together–let the dog shred the paper afterwards
- A tea cozy
- Nylon strapping
- Cat toys, feather boa on a stick
- Smooth items
- Soft fleeces items
- anything that makes a ripping sound (like a stufffed animal ripping open)
- A branch with leaves on it
- A tough cotton table napkin with cheese rolled in the middle the knotted
- Plastic bag with food inside
- Tugging on food: a raw chicken wing or a steak, then put it in sock, then just use the sock
- A previously tugged toy (one with another dog’s saliva on it)
- A springy telephone cord
- A dust buster (mini vaccum)
My Golden Doodle will tug on my property but one step off and he is not interested. He will fetch sometimes but never tug. He is very distracted by the environment but also seems a little unsure. I have been working on this for a long time and never try more than twice. I don’t use any food rewards for tugging at home as he loves it. Should I be? I wish I could get him to love tugging off the property so he could have some more freedom off leash
My dog loves the garden hose. She’s chewed through one, so pieces of the old garden hose are great for tugging.
My dogs like a 2 foot long roll of heissian that I sew into shape with whipping twine from my sailing kit. Tug individually with me or play tug of war together.
My dogs like when I wrap a big flat shoelace around a broken 3/4″ piece of branch, or they love the tree pinecones that are smaller than a golf-ball. They also love the hard plastic bottle caps of juice and the love the vacuum’s brush accessory tool to chew on!
Thanks for the ideas
My borderterrier loves a short horsewip with a little pice of fur in the end of the rope.
Love the different ideas
Thank you for the suggestion.she likes stuffed animals with a lot of the stuffing,will try different ones,will get back to you
My papillon loves to bat around and pick up an empty water bottle. It’s crackly and light and he can control it! It was one of his “first choice” toys
Mine love them too but now I put them in an old sock. No need to knot the top so they are easily replaced. I also keep the lid screwed on tight to get more crinkle mileage. Plastic bottles break down quickly so it eliminated the fear of my dogs ingesting or absorbing any plastic. They love it just as much if not more since the sock keeps the fun going longer.
Thanks for this suggestion! My puppy loves it!
car wash mitt – tough, textured, FUN
My dog goes nuts for anything that is as big as a soccer ball and rolls. Hence, we have been using a deflated soccer ball as well as inflated ones! She also seems to like blankets because they can be drug low to the ground and flap like an animal bounding away. So I will defiantly try the cheep dollar store scarf… A GREAT BIG ONE!!!
My Aussiedoodle loves playing tug with pool noodles, old socks with an empty water bottle knotted inside, microfiber blind dusters and anything that’s bigger and longer than he is!
Can make pool noodle chase toys by running small diameter string or rope through the center & tie a series of knots at the end of the noodle to keep the line from pulling back through.
#42 got me…. Haha, I can only imagine the look on a dogs face, one of pure joy, when the owner brings out a pair of DIRTY UNDERWEAR!! That was great for a laugh today… 🙂
My dog always goes for my hand ???? I’m going to wear a shield in front of my hand ,i guess !
My 2yo maltese x poodle loves to tug on anything during play time, but during training and at dog school, she has never shown the least interest. I have tried developing value for a tug toy, purchased real un-washed rabbit fur tugs, a tug- it, put a ball (her fav toy) in a sock, put snacks in a sock, put salami in a sock, acted like a crazy woman- nothing. She simply looks at me then sniffs the ground, and to make matters worse, the next time I ask her to so something, she acts like she did it wrong, cos she got no treat. This has been going on for a year. Just recently, she has decided to show ever decreasing interest in her squeaky ball when at school. What an I doing wrong?????
#45 was the first tuggy game that I was able to play with my (formerly) non-tugging terrier. “heeeeeere…..come….the…..BITEY THINGS!” It was terrifically fun and we both still enjoy that game so much.
Hey! Number 45 at our house is known as “blankie monster games”!
I use a 3/4″diameter rope (about 6′ long) tied in loop through a Holey Roller.
I have been trying to build tug drive in the little sheltie but she absolutely LOVES to tug on the big sheltie’s tail… maybe I should send his fur away to be spun into yarn and knit a tug toy for the little one???? 🙂
those sacrificial dollar store foam Frizzes kind of…..evolve in to more tuggable, “softer” versions of themselves after awhile. I didn’t expect to use them half as much as I do!
Also good old braided fleece remnants from the fabric store, sew a pocket on one end to tuck liverwurst in to. Then, don’t forget to wash the darn thing!
Where’s a visual for tugging with that mini-vac?
My BC goes nuts for the dustpan and brush. She also really goes mad with excitment when I change the rubbish bin (trash can??) liner as I have to wave that around to open it up before placing it in the bin. I have used this as a distraction in contact training then allowed her to rip it up if she meets criteria through the distraction.
my dog didn’t want to tug initially, but when i took a used white sock, filled it with liverwurst and poked some holes in it, well….she thought it would be just fine to tug on that. now she’ll tug anything presented to her. went from a non tugger to a tugging maniac!
I’ve been working on teaching my puppy to switch from a tug to food and back again, and tonight I discovered a real gem: little stick horse I got from the dollar store. She LOVES it. Go figure. I think it reminds her of her arch nemesis the broom…
..I tried the sardines too! Not as successfull as you, I emptied the tin, poped them in a airtight tug and off down to the field we went, I placed them out of the way – but ready! Could I get Harry to work without rushing madily off to where I had placed the pot!
So I think I may need someone else ready with the pot so he doesn’t know I’ve got them!????
Ps. It worked for the BC’s though!
Love ya blog.
I’m sure someone will thing I’m crazy, but I’ve had about 4 dogs who tugged on my fingers. Now, no the weren’t biting me. I’d present my hand with the first two fingers kinda curled in and they’d hook their canines over them and hold them as I kinda swung them back and forth and after a while we’d be tugging. Even my old Catahoula that didn’t play with anything would play tug like that. I’d always made sure they understood if they bit down it was over. I think one puppy bit once and he realized it’s not fun to make mom scream.
Oh, Ann, I used to do that with my last dog while we were waiting to go in the ring. I’d hook my finger around his canine and he’d tug away. What a great memory!
Thanks! Karen
Michelle, I use the Caesar trays as a super duper reward for my Border Terrier, Robin- a combo fetch/tug/eat event that you could easily make into a not terribly stinky jackpot
The Casear trays can be thrown, lid on. Robin will pick up the tray, and when she bites down on it, her teeth pierce the foil top and she gets taste of divine, yummie, goodness (a friend of mine calls it doggie crack- maybe she stole the term from Susan), and I then pick up the tray and play tug with it (some care is required here, as the foil can have sharp edgfes, but so far no problems). I let Robin have a bite and then, if I am at a trial, I toss the rest.
lovely padded mailing envelopes, like the ones DVDs are shipped in — they sound great, already been ripped open once and are free (as long as you get people to mail you stuff)
Sardine trick – Susan you must have known that I would try the sardines in training. Yesterday I bought some and as I was unloading my groceries my husband asked, What Are Those? I said they are for training ☺, to his reply, Not in This House. Well of course not ☺ So off to the training hall I go, noting that Trudy will not know about the lovely treasure until she does something wonderful. Well wonderful happened and the sardines appeared. She did some awesome crate dives and wonderful A-Frames so she gobbled them up. Now sardines dont come out of the can themselves, and I didnt bring a spoon!! So used my hands to feed her, best way anyway. But gross is purely an understatement. I always bring wet wipes, but sorry, they dont do the job. I got home, scrubbed my hands and they still smelled. And worst of all, I forgot and Trudy gave me a loving smooch and guess what – sardine breath – yeow. So Trudy, you got lucky this time, next time, it may be delicious, but it wont be sardines ☺ Thanks Susan ☺
My dogs love my old baseball glove or mittens/gloves.
Love it! My dogs tug on my wrist watch strap!
I tried every single one of these yesterday, and NONE of them worked… just kidding 🙂 Thanks to everyone for this exhaustive list.