Ginger and sophia's toy war

coleywoley · Post by **coleywoley** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 8:26 pm

So Ginger Snap and Sophia have an ongoing toy war.

Sophia sets her toys up for a tea party, Ginger carries one off. Soph runs after her shouting no Ginger get your own toy, Ginger just keeps chewing away. Ginger follows me upstairs Soph scrambles up after us yelling "Mommy, shut my gate! Don't let Ginger get my toys!" It's all very funny and exasperating at the same time.

Soph constantly takes Ginger her actual chew toys...except when chasing her. She makes training more challenging.
So tonight we had a turning point in the toy war. Ginger voluntarily was chewing her own toy

(she does this a lot when Soph isn't around but the taking a toy thing is her favorite game to play). Soph got all excited and starts yelling "Ginger's playing with her own toys! Good ginger! Look mommy look...ginger's playing with her own toy!" She was so proud of Ginger and seemed in awe that Ginger would actually play with something soph hadn't given her

Two year olds!

Dogdad · Post by **Dogdad** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 4:16 am

oh how cute, a word of warning, some dogs, not just chows can be toy aggressive, if ginger steals toys again, make sure an adult tries to retrieve it

David

Laura · Post by **Laura** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 7:51 am

lol that's cute. I can imagine that would be a constant battle. Two 2 year olds (so to speak) fighting over toys...imagine that

. hehe

Vic-O · Post by **Vic-O** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 8:05 am

Hudson does the same thing, but she's a bit older (10 months). My son is 2 1/2. Up until yesterday, when playing outside, they were constantly stealing toys from eachother. I started saying "leave it" when Lucien would steal a toy from her, or have a toy that she wanted and she would be trying to lick his hand to death and jump up on him to get it back. She used her teeth to snatch one once, so I made it a priority yesterday. I would gently say "leave it" and take the toy away and give it to Lucien, then say "sit" and she would sit anxiously and I would praise her and give her lot's of love. I started to to be able to just say "leave it" once or twice and she would stop and sit down. I imagine it's more difficult with a younger, less timid pup, but I'm sure a day of being really vigilant about it would help.
It really is like having two young kids running around. I feel like I have more leeway with my son than with Hudson though, because if Hudson is getting wound up, it's a little more intimidating.
Good luck with your kiddos!
-Victoria

coleywoley · Post by **coleywoley** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 12:04 pm

We have been working on teaching Ginger drop it and the leave it command both. The hardest part is getting sophia to understand that her actions are what make it a game to Ginger. I am usually the one who takes the toys back simply because otherwise they just chase each other around the house laughing and jumping. I don't think Ginger understands that Soph is not just another puppy dog without fur. She has gotten much better about not chewing on soph though. It really is just like having two two year olds in the house. If only Soph was as easy to potty train as ginger was life would be grand.