So, I haven’t been on here as much as of late and I haven’t been throwing as much as I would like to because I got a new puppy that has turned my world upside down. She has brought a lot of joy to my life but has also been a lot of work! I got her in August at 4 months old. She’s a Black Lab Terrier Mix ( I love Black Lab mixed breeds). She’s a bit more hyper than my last dog and she constantly wants to play with me while I yoyo. I sometimes end up putting her in her crate so I can get some yoyo time in but I feel bad doing that. I do sometimes distract her with a rawhide or Himalayan dog chew but sometimes she’ll just slip in between my legs and I’m scared to death that I’m going to whack her with my yoyo and knock some of her teeth out or injure her pretty badly. Part of me thinks she’d learn her lesson that way but she’s young and fragile so I don’t want to hurt her.
Have any of you dealt with similar challenges with a new pup in your homes? If so, any advice on how you dealt with it would be greatly appreciated. I want her to know that yoyo’s are off limits but she’s at that age where nothing is off limits. She is smart, she’s learning pretty quick but it’s just in a puppies nature to want to bite everything and play to get that puppy energy out. I walk her several times a day and play with her in the field next to my place so she can burn that energy off but it’s pretty endless.
She’s a super cute puppy though, she’s got the Black Lab look with the scruff of what I think looks like a Jack Russel Terrier.
Here is my lil angel (or lil devil depending on her behavior). My daughter named her Shadow.
Puppies and babies are bouncy, she’ll be fine lol.
In all seriousness, maybe consider using a plastic for a while, or even a rubberized throw, like the Duncan “First Yo” or whatever it’s called, and just get some basic throw time in around her, and if she gets in the way, the message will still be received, and vet visit is less likely. At least in theory lol
Thank you, she is an awesome dog. I agree, I’ve given myself a black eye before so I don’t want to hurt her but I do want her to stay away, I guess patience is the best approach here.
That’s hilarious. But yeah, I do play a lot more with my Duncan’s now. I actually just bought one at Target, it’s the Butterfly with a bearing, the molded throws are much more light weight and definitely won’t cause a bad injury. I’ve tried breaking my Shooting Stars out as well as the Dove (Delrin) but those can pack a pretty good punch as well. It’s funny because I was house sitting in May and my brothers dog couldn’t stand yoyo’s, she would run out of the room anytime she saw one, she was just inherently scared of them, lol… I wish my pup was. I’m really aching to get some good throw time in but she’s got other plans.
Yo I got a puppy like 5 months ago (she’s 7 months now) and just didn’t yoyo around her until more recently. Puppies sleep a lot so I would just yoyo when she was in her crate napping at first. (I definitely recommend using a crate but not overusing it like just when they would nap/sleep anyways). Then I would yoyo around her but only when she was super distracted with a special treat that I knew could fully occupy her attention. Now I kinda just pay attention to her and if she’s across the room chilling, I’ll yoyo; but if she starts to come over by me and wants to play, I’ll stop and give her attention. It helps me to play with her hard in the morning for like 30 mins ish and then she’s a lot happier to just chill and nap like all day basically lol.
I think that you shouldn’t risk hurting her. I definitely lost some yoyo time when we first got our puppy but now I’ve been able to figure out how to balance both. I also highly recommend mccann dog training on youtube bc they’re good. I don’t know what your level of expertise with training dogs is, but my wife and I didn’t have much and that channel really helped us.
I think you have to accept that taking care of and training a puppy will eat into your yoyo time, especially at first, but you can definitely find a way to do both. Good luck and enjoy raising the new puppy!
I’d recommend yoyoing after you have exercised your dog, both physically and mentally. This puts the dog in a low energy, high relaxation, fulfilled zone. The dog will be ready for a nap or to just laze around. Perfect time to yoyo!
First off, adorable puppy (and @GTDropKnot very cute pup as well)! I used to have a cheeky black lab named Shadow when I was younger
Most of the dogs I/my family have had have at some point or another taken me yoyoing as a sign that it’s time to play, particularly my family’s labs, so I feel your frustration lol. It does pass eventually and they settle into just ignoring your yoyoing. I do have a couple, relatively basic tips that might help speed the process up though.
I agree with Henry, I wouldn’t go with the “if she gets a (gentle) bump she’ll be fine and learn”. I think there are safer ways to go about it that also will avoid teaching her to be worried by the yo-yo. That said, using a plastic, rounded corner yo-yo early on to be safe is probably a good idea. Also try and yo-yo somewhere you can keep an eye on her and just be careful of course.
The main thing I’d say is, if she comes over to play with you/the yoyo while you’re throwing not to reward that behaviour by immediately swapping over to playing with her or distracting her with a chew. That’ll just teach her that yoyos=treats/play. Instead you want her to view yoyoing as boring, so I’d suggest stopping and doing something like reading a book/watching a show/whatever other alternative and ignoring her for 5 min or so (after which you can play with her/give her a chew/etc). That’ll teach her that yoyoing is boring so she’ll quickly lose interest.
As Henry said, puppies sleep a lot so when you want some relatively stress free yoyoing time try and do it after exercise/food/during one of her naps. She’ll probably develop a routine for when she’s more active and more sleepy throughout the day that hopefully lines up the drowsy time with a period when you can yo-yo. You can also try yoyoing in another room with the door closed if your space allows it.
I recently adopted a cat, couple of months ago and SHE LOVES STRINGS, but literally love them, I tried to buy some toys but is useless, strings come first.
I tried to show her that play time is when I have a string on my hand and play it with her myself, to let understand better because she is very curious I throw a sleeper couple of times and make her “smell it”.
She tried to smell the yoyo while rotating and she didnt’ like much, she wasn’t really interested, it took couple of times but now what she likes to do is sit down on her tree and watch the yoyo go all over the place but she has no interested in “attack it” just looking.
I think it takes a bit of time to let them go in a routine, also I play lot of hours and she get used to stay close to me while playing and watch me or fall asleep.
I think is better if you start to play frequently close to her so she also understand that is something that happen everyday and not something special, pretty sure she will lose interest soon.
She is adorable and beautiful . I was just getting ready to ask you about her. And I agree strings can be great cat toys. Does she chase the string when you drag it around the room?
So happy to see you have such a sweetie And hopefully your allergies are not bad.
So she basically love if I drag the string around the room or I make it bounce close to her face and make it fly around lol, she get absolutely mental lol
And she is a sweetie very naughty as well but it makes me do a great laugh.
About allergies, I had to start take antihistamine daily otherwise it was unbearable the itching I had (mostly in the night) but I did not wanted to rehome her so I found this solution that so far is working wonderfully (luckily)
Thanks for sharing a pic of your dog and your experience, I love dog pics as much as I love yoyo pics!
Lately I’ve found that if I lather a rawhide with peanut butter, she could care less about me throwing my yo. It’s pretty damn cute when she does try to get my yoyo though, she just sits there biting the air. Getting a pup is definitely worth the lack of yoyo time, she brings a lot of joy to my daughter and I… now I just need to get her to stop biting my daughter, her teeth are SHARP. It’s just a practice in patience. It’s been good for my yoyo spending too, I haven’t purchased a yoyo in a long time… now that I say that, I really think it might be time for another…
That’s so awesome! And thanks, she is pretty adorable, I saw her at the shelter and knew right away that she’d be going home with us!
Great suggestions, thanks for pitching in!
Beautiful cat! I like the idea of playing near her and teaching her that this is not play time. To be honest she is starting to catch on but sometimes when I bring her back from a really long walk and frisbee play, she get’s even more hyped up and wants to keep playing. I usually wait 15 min or so for her to calm down and once she’s chilled out, I’ve been breaking out the yoyo. I’m definitely starting to get more time now, the first 3 weeks was tough though which, puppies are just tough. I literally had to change everything in my home.
I almost went for a Frenchie this time around but it wasn’t in my fate.
. I was just getting ready to ask you about her. And I agree strings can be great cat toys. Does she chase the string when you drag it around the room?
