Puppy learns to play... Slowly.

My friends rescued a 2-year-old purebred Rotwieler from the abusive neighbors, and have been slowly socializing it with their other dogs. Having pretty much -never- played with anyone, she’s slowly learning how to, and it’s amazingly cute. She’s finally gotten the hang of bring-the-toy-to-the-person when you want to play, but hasn’t -quite- gotten fetch or tug-o-war yet. Sometimes when you throw she’ll go after it, sometimes not. If you tug on the toy, she’ll immediately let go and get a very penitent look (‘Oh! I didn’t know -you- wanted the toy!’). The other dogs, I think, are trying to show her that it’s okay to tug on the toy when someone else has is.
It’s sort-of heartwarming to see this dog, who was horribly mistreated by its former owners, finally recognizing that humans are pretty okay, and that, in a good house, she’ll be loved and taken care of. :slight_smile:

My son has a Rottweiler who is the best dog you could want or imagine. The breed has gotten bad publicity but I think that’s misguided. If any dog is abused or trained to be viscious they will be, even a Peke. The thing about Rottweilers, and other big dogs, is if they are really big and so if mean can be a serious problem.

Please extend my thanks to your friend for rescuing. I rescued a Boston Terror from a puppy mill and found it’s a joy to watch the dog learn and discover all the things that other dogs take for granted.

My rescue completely ignored all the toys for about two months. Then one day, he discovered the toy box. He went and got a toy and ran under the coffee table to chew on it. My other dog (spoiled rotten) politely sat back and watched. When the rescue lost interest in that toy, he abandoned it and went back to the toy box to try out another one. As soon as he got up, spoiled dog would jump up and snatch the toy rescued dog had been playing with. He’d abandon the second toy and spoiled dog would snatch that. Rinse and repeat until all the toys were out of the box and scattered in two piles: one pile surrounding spoiled dog and another pile surrounding rescued dog.

He will fetch, but still won’t give up the toy on the return. He will not play tug of war with people or spoiled dog. But we take baby steps…