# Teaching an Abused Dog to Play



## Sam_From_Texas (Nov 9, 2010)

I adopted Sheila from a rescue a little over a month ago. She is a year old Great Pyrenees / Australian Cattle Dog mix. She's awesome. She's really nice, loyal, etc. However, we're having some trouble with play time. She just refuses to play with toys or with me. She will run beside me when I'm jogging or biking, and she loves walking on and off-leash (when in open fields). She loves car rides too, so I know that she has the ability to get excited. It just seems like unless we're outside and moving, she could care less. At home if you get really excited she'll start wagging her tail and may get excited, but then she'll walk over to you and lay down. I tried rolling around with her on the floor like I did with my childhood lab, but she just stays still and waits for you to pet her stomach. This isn't exactly a "problem," but it's something I'd like to work on with her. If I'm home and not petting her, she's usually laying down and I'm worried she's bored (and/or) unhappy.

I can't say that she was necessarily "abused," but I do know she was mainly an outdoor dog for her first year. She did live with her littermate sister back then, so at least she had someone to play with. I let her out in the backyard, but she doesn't like to be outside and will sit at the door until I let her back in. She gets along with dogs, although for her that mainly means sitting there and being submissive. The happiest I've ever seen her she met a male lab and went dashing around our neighborhood at full speed. But, I've never seen her that playful since. She is really skittish around anyone she doesn't know, but will warm up soon. Loud noises, sudden movement, etc. all scare her which is why I feel she was mishandled at some point. She's also very timid to bite toys, food, anything. I tried getting some Kongs to teach her about toys, but all she does is lick the stuffing out. I'm just worried about her not having any sort of mental stimulation.

I do know she has the ability to chew things up because before we started crate training she found some leather things around that house that ripped apart quite nicely :/ Anyway, if someone can help, knows a website, has heard rumors to fix this, that would be great. She has pretty decent Separation Anxiety with me, and I'd like to be able to alleviate that some with toys as well as play around with her.


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## Elida (May 6, 2010)

Hi,

I have 2 rescue dogs and they are the same. They got much better about the fearful thing since I adopted them but still.. I bought them lots of toys, I try to play with them but they are not interested. I have a small garden, they don't even go out if I am inside the house. A few times I saw them chasing each other, but don't what triggers it 
I am trying to teach them 'fetch' nowadays, and the girl shows no interest at all, and the boy gives up after a couple of times. 
Maybe they find me boring, who knows

Following the thread for any advice.


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## lil_fuzzy (Aug 16, 2010)

My dog was like that too. She wasn't abused, but she did grow up with her brother before being rehomed. She was alwasy very quiet and not interested in toys, but she loved walks and outdoorsy stuff.

But after I got my puppy she has come to life, she is playful and lively and I caught the two of them ripping apart their bed the other day.

So she definitely missed having a canine friend. Maybe that's the case with yours too... I would recommend adding another dog just as company tho.


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## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

I think Fuzzy, meant WOULDN'T recommend another dog just as company....am I right?

Sam,
First things first. You've only had her a month so it's likely going to take some time for her to be comfortable enough to play with you or be more outgoing for the main part. The fact that she likes to be with you is good and the fact that she had a tear around with the lab is also a good sign. She is likely just really inhibited right now, figuring out the rules and what's good and what's not. It can take a gooooood while for a dog to feel safe enough totally to play with a new human, even if she DOES really like you. 

It's also important to remember that being that she was primarily an outdoor dog, with only another dog for company and that half of her genetics comes from a breed that is more loyal to other animals than people, that she is somewhat undersocialized to humans and probably doesn't realize she CAN play with you. This may or may not change. All you can do is be patient, take it slow, work on making training fun and rewarding to her and go from there. 

Good luck. She's a beautiful girl.


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## qingcong (Oct 26, 2009)

It sounds to me like you just have a calm, mild mannered dog. You know, most of us would dream of owning a dog like that. When the dog is just laying down, she's probably just relaxing, and relaxing is an activity too. She doesn't have to be amped up and excited to be happy. Simply being with you and relaxing makes her happy. 

The skittishness to strange things is normal, she's not used to it so she's careful about it. It doesn't mean she was abused. I would say just let her be and allow her to learn to relax and enjoy her for who she is.


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## Tavi (May 21, 2010)

I have a rescue right now that is a lot like this, though we have more to deal with on fear issues than not engaging in play. For Dia she knows how to interact with dogs, but people are completely foreign to her. So she'll play like a pro with any game that involves Buddy, but seems to get very confused when me or my roomie enter the game with them. I just believe in taking time and letting them get use to playing with us. Sometimes I'll actually just play with Buddy while she watches so she can at least get an idea of how he reacts to the games. But really a month is a very short time for a relationship, especially for a dog thats spent so much time with no people.


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## lil_fuzzy (Aug 16, 2010)

> I think Fuzzy, meant WOULDN'T recommend another dog just as company....am I right?


Oops, yep, sorry

Definitely do NOT get another dog just for company for the first dog.


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## qingcong (Oct 26, 2009)

Oh yeah, here's something to consider. It sounds to me like you want this dog to be a little more exploratory and want to provide some mental stimulation. I think you might like to check out the training technique called shaping. We have a few resident experts on shaping, like KBLover and some others. The idea behind shaping is that it gets the dog in a seeking state of mind where she wants to try new behaviors. At the same time, it forces the dog to think, fulfilling your wish to give the dog mental stimulation.


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## Sam_From_Texas (Nov 9, 2010)

Awesome. Thank for the replies. They helped a lot. I think I'm just so used to dogs being really hyperactive (my first family dog was a golden retriever we got as a puppy) that I was worried about her. I'll definitely have to check into shaping. I'm going to be working with her on more training for the next few months and see how it goes. She definitely is a very well behaved dog. Maybe with some more time here she'll come out of her shell some.


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