So I've been thinking. Simi is obsessed with her jolly egg. I think a large reason is because her egg is outside in the fence with her 95% of the time and she plays with it most of the time she's outside. She's built up drive to her toy to the point where I can stand in the door way, hold her back and say "Get your eggie, get your eggie!" and she's literally screaming.
I've recently started using her egg as a reward for agility and while it's awesome and I love it... I'd much rather have her use a tug... so I got thinking and came up with an idea that I'd like to get some opinions on from everyone in general, but more specific the high drive and/or sports dog people.
I am wondering if I could set up a spring pole type contraption in the fence, tie a toy I can get several of to (was thinking a milker.. maybe a holee roller..) and try to teach her to play with that, hoping she'd build up a similar drive/love for that toy as she did her egg, and maybe be able to use that toy in agility....
We have a tree in our dog fence I can tie a rope to with a tug... but I'm just wondering how I'd rig the spring part so pulling on it wasn't so hard on it... and also if this is a good idea in general. Simi is OBSESSED with her egg. I sometimes wonder if maybe too much, but after seeing the effect it has for agility, I am fine with it and pleased with it, actually. The egg obsession takes some of the hard work off of Psyche and Crash cause she's not bugging them to play all the time, and it gives her something that physically and mentally stimulates her when I can't.
So basically thoughts and opinions on the idea to do it, and maybe if letting her build drive on her one and obsess over things like this is a bad idea..?
I've recently started using her egg as a reward for agility and while it's awesome and I love it... I'd much rather have her use a tug... so I got thinking and came up with an idea that I'd like to get some opinions on from everyone in general, but more specific the high drive and/or sports dog people.
I am wondering if I could set up a spring pole type contraption in the fence, tie a toy I can get several of to (was thinking a milker.. maybe a holee roller..) and try to teach her to play with that, hoping she'd build up a similar drive/love for that toy as she did her egg, and maybe be able to use that toy in agility....
We have a tree in our dog fence I can tie a rope to with a tug... but I'm just wondering how I'd rig the spring part so pulling on it wasn't so hard on it... and also if this is a good idea in general. Simi is OBSESSED with her egg. I sometimes wonder if maybe too much, but after seeing the effect it has for agility, I am fine with it and pleased with it, actually. The egg obsession takes some of the hard work off of Psyche and Crash cause she's not bugging them to play all the time, and it gives her something that physically and mentally stimulates her when I can't.
So basically thoughts and opinions on the idea to do it, and maybe if letting her build drive on her one and obsess over things like this is a bad idea..?