How to tell my dog his toy is not alive?

[peacefan]

Hi all! My dog got a new squeaky toy today and he seems to thinks it’s sentient? The moment he bite it and realize it makes noises, he starts whining, wagging his tail and bring the toy to me to hold. I was working at the time and thought he’d just excited so I pet him and put the toy back on his bed. From there he started whining and pacing around even more (it sounded like he was nervous for a second but maybe he’s just very excited). Eventually I have to hide the toy since I’m working from home and he was making too much noises.

What is the best way to introduce or I guess communicate to him that this is a toy without him feeling so overwhelmed lol? Or should I just keep it away from him? Thank you!

EDIT: just adding some info about my dog! He’s a chihuahua/pug mix so I would say he’s small/medium size. In general he prefers to play alone. We tried playing fetch a few times but every time he just takes the toy back to his mat and play by himself lol which is why I thought he just wanted to show me the toy instead of playing with me. He currently has 2 other toys and those aren’t as squeaky as this new one.

 

[taderbutt]

@peacefan He might just be wanting to play with you. My dog brings her toys over to me to play with them with her.
If he’s really thinking the toy is alive, again play with him with it. So he can see you playing with it too and realizes it’s okay. Squeak it, throw it, act excited about it, play fetch with it for him. If you think he still is acting weird with it, maybe squeak toys are not his thing.

 

[peaceloving]

@peacefan Hahaha my last dog was like that. If she accidentally made a toy squeak (she never did it on purpose) she’d whine and lick it like she was apologizing. She never got over it but I’d just buy toys without squeakers

 

[xxarixx]

@peaceloving My little dog had a lovely stuffed elephant he cuddled up with to sleep. We would joke that it was his wife.
I got him a little elephant squeaky toy and he must have thought that thing was their love child the way he carried on about it. He would never squeak it, just gently carry it around and lick it a lot. That thing was his baby.

 

[teresa3231]

@xxarixx I love this! My little yorkie has a cuddle toy that he’s in love with too. He’s never truly comfortable until he has his toy. He’s licked bare spots on it over the years. I’ve had to repair it so many times now it’s half the size it was originally. It’s the sweetest thing in the world watching him love on his toy. It truly is his life partner!

His favourite toy was a stuffed sumo wrestler, now it just looks like a naked baby. We made this parody video about his sumo it was based off croissant dog which is adorable!

 

[eternalseeker1]

@teresa3231 TikTok? Screw that.

 

[nltray]

@peaceloving What a gentle soul... That's adorable.

 

[peaceloving]

@nltray She really really was the most gentle. She actually wouldn’t even push open doors that were left open but didn’t leave enough space for her. Cat used to attack her, even by running up and getting under her legs on the stairs, and she would just stand there wagging her tail waiting for rescue. Miss that girl so much.

 

[jordan1989]

@peaceloving lol we’re worried that our dogs are anthropomorphizing their toys too much. What would their wolf predecessors think about that?

 

[peaceloving]

@jordan1989 I picture it like that Adrian Bliss video where the dinosaur meets the chicken

 

[stellanguyen]

@peaceloving Meanwhile mine rips the limbs off of hers.. LOL. Thankfully she is not like that with people!