We rescued a senior dog from a shelter 10 days ago. She is 12 years old and it doesn’t seem that she’s had the greatest life. She doesn’t know what a toy is and doesn’t know how to play, other than what appears to be how she played with another dog. She isn’t house-broken and doesnt know any command either.

She’s turning out to be an amazing dog. She is kind and gentle. She doesn’t make a sound and we were sure that she must’ve had her larynx removed but a few days ago she heard something and barked. Yay! In this short time, she has come to trust me, which at times takes awhile for a rescue animal.

She’s doing great at learning to potty outside and head for the door when she needs to go. So I thought the next thing is to learn something new.

I decided to teach her to fetch so we got a couple of toys that belonged to my other dog. We stood at each end of the hallway and tossed a ball and a toy back and forth. My hope was that if we acted excited about the game, she would join in. I could swear that each time we tossed a toy, she’d look at me as if to wonder why on earth we were doing that. I think I caught her rolling her eyes at us too.

Ok, so that didn’t work. She had absolutely no interest in the toys, any of them. A couple of times she got excited and began nibbling at a cushion and a throw blanket. This got me thinking, she needed something to naw on and she didn’t like what I had out for her. I got 5 old socks that were in a bin to be used for dusting, (a couple of them were heavy winter socks). I tied two knots in each of them. Years ago I had dogs that loved to play tug-of-war with old socks with knots. I did my best to encourage her to play with it but she wasn’t interested in them. The next day she’d occasionally pick one up and naw on it a bit. The next day she’d pick one up and carry it to the couch with her.

Yesterday she brought three of them to the couch, one at a time. YaY! She has something of HERS that she loves. Here’s my chance to teach her to play fetch, right.!?

I took the heavy sock that she seems to like the most and threw it a couple of feet. She ran to get it! I cheered her on and encouraged her that this was a great thing that she just did! She came running to me and I cheered her on again! I took the sock from her and threw it further. I cheered her on as she got it and started running back towards me! I was so excited, we were playing fetch … but oh, I guess we’re NOT. She ran by me and went into the other room with her sock.

Today I attempted to play fetch again with the same results. I know, I know the same thing will produce the same results. Clearly she did NOT understand why I’d cheer her on and then take it away from her.

One day we’ll get it down, I’m sure of it … really I am.