Gun Dog Forum

Kovan, It occurred to me that I did not ask if the chew toys your dog plays with have any squeakers in them. If they do, take them away immediately and replace them with chew items which make no noise. I like a Kong and Porkys for my dogs. Letting a pup chew on a toy with a squeaker in it creates a horrible mouthing problem as the dog is rewarded over and over for biting down to hear the prey like squeal of the squeaker. It is a problem that may never go away and at best is hard to train away, so avoid it always by never giving a puppy or dog of any age a toy with a squeaker in it.

My dogs, both past and present, have always played with toys with squeakers in them. I've never experienced the problem you are describing.

+1. A couple 100 puppies all played with squeaker toys no hard mouths. The noise can drive you crazy though....Cj

When you give a dog a squeak toy to play with its kind of like letting him carry around a bomb; it may never blow up or it may explode at any time. There are two problems with squeak toys: 1) when squeezed they sound like a small animal in distress. Much like your dog catching a baby rabbit. 2) they're soft and squishy and when aggressively squished feel and sound like a small animal.

Now, if you hunt nothing but large birds like pheasant, duck and geese, you MAY not have a problem. If you hunt smaller birds like woodcock, quail and grouse, you may be headed for a massive problem. The small, thin skin birds are so easy to mangle.

The great retriever trainer, Charles Morgan, in an interview after winning a National said: "Dog training is nothing more than replacing one problem with a lesser problem until we have as few problems as possible". So, why would you EVER give a dog something that may cause one of the most serious problems there are in dog training and development? Makes no sense to me at all. There have probably been more dog's sent to the bone yard for bird eating than any other reason. It is a problem that once confirmed can usually never be cured, only partially controlled. Why in Heavens name would you possibly take that chance?

Years ago I gave my GWP puppy at the time a soft rubber ball with a squeaker in it. He immediately became obsessed with it, working it in his mouth non-stop as he ran, making the toy squeak. (It was cute as all get out.)

The squeak when he bit down obviously triggered the predator killing prey instinct in the very young puppy.

Short while later I introduced a puppy bumper and there was that puppy running back to me with the bumper, working it in his mouth non-stop as he ran to me.

I knew immediately what a horrible mistake I had made, giving that puppy a squeak toy which incited him to bite down on objects in his mouth repeatedly. I took it away and over time I was able to extinguish the mouthing problem.

Dodged a bullet with that pup. NEVER AGAIN have I, nor will I give a puppy a squeak toy.

averageguy wrote:Kovan, It occurred to me that I did not ask if the chew toys your dog plays with have any squeakers in them. If they do, take them away immediately and replace them with chew items which make no noise. I like a Kong and Porkys for my dogs. Letting a pup chew on a toy with a squeaker in it creates a horrible mouthing problem as the dog is rewarded over and over for biting down to hear the prey like squeal of the squeaker. It is a problem that may never go away and at best is hard to train away, so avoid it always by never giving a puppy or dog of any age a toy with a squeaker in it.

When my retriever was 4 months, I use to get him the squeal toys because it draws his attention. I have stop giving him those kind of toys for awhile now since he just kept destroying them all so all I get him is just regular chewing toys. I will keep this in mind Thanks

I don't give pups squeaky toys for the same reason as others have stated …..plus I don't have to. There are plenty of other things pups can play with.


Very occasionally I have had problems when pups of large breeds have been given tennis balls as play retrieves. I had one male GSP pup that delighted in applying pressure to the ball. I think he liked the way it resisted the pressure and pushed back to regain it's original shape. He ended up bursting tennis balls. I at once stopped using them and consider myself fortunate that he didn't do the same to birds a couple of months later.


Bill T.

averageguy wrote:Years ago I gave my GWP puppy at the time a soft rubber ball with a squeaker in it. He immediately became obsessed with it, working it in his mouth non-stop as he ran, making the toy squeak. (It was cute as all get out.)

The squeak when he bit down obviously triggered the predator killing prey instinct in the very young puppy.

Short while later I introduced a puppy bumper and there was that puppy running back to me with the bumper, working it in his mouth non-stop as he ran to me.

I knew immediately what a horrible mistake I had made, giving that puppy a squeak toy which incited him to bite down on objects in his mouth repeatedly. I took it away and over time I was able to extinguish the mouthing problem.

Dodged a bullet with that pup. NEVER AGAIN have I, nor will I give a puppy a squeak toy.

Now I am wondering.....is that why my retriever is having a hard time giving me his ball when he wants to play? He will come to me with his ball but as I command him to give or drop he just keep chewing on it while the ball is in my hand.

Like many above all of my dogs over the years have had squeaky toys when pups.....none have been hard mouthed! Of course all of my dogs were FF as part of the training programs they underwent....

I don't give my dogs squeaky toys either. For me, it's mostly about the noise. I've gone so far as to cut out the squeaker, then sew them back up when we've gotten them as gifts.

At first I also had the thinking that it may cause hard-mouth, but the more I thought about it, the more I think that it doesn't. My dogs have big ropes they play with. They shake them and play tug with them, and I've never once seen those behaviors in the field. My pointer will play tug with those ropes all day long, but she spits the bird out so fast when I say "give" that I don't say it unless I have a hold of the bird already.

Now all that said, squeak toys may exacerbate the problem with an already (prone to be) hard-mouthed dog. But I don't see any evidence that it causes it.

Kovan, it sure could be. Based on what you have shared and the age of your dog, it might be a good idea to get with a Pro Trainer at this point, as well as engross yourself in some good DVD materials ,Evan Graham, Bill Hillman and Perfect Retrieve DVD from Perfection Kennel are 3 sources that I own and borrow from in my work. It is not possible for any of us to get a full read on your pup over the internet but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The pup I mentioned had the start of a mouthing problem that clearly stemmed from working that squeak toy in his mouth. Ray Charles could have seen it. He was also naturally soft mouthed as evidenced by bringing me a live wood duck duckling with not a mark on it one evening when he was maybe 6 months old at the time. I caught the problem early enough to work through it.

Opinions on the subject obviously vary per this thread. They vary far far less if you sample the opinion of Pro Retriever Trainers. GH was one for a lot of years ...

This could be a dog dependent issue. I have to echo that my brittany didn't ever get hard mouthed due to squeaker toys, maybe because birds don't squeak? IDK it sounds like the GWP folks have had opposite experiences though. My older Brittany DID start to get hard mouthed after a few seasons of feeding him the grouse feet. I thought we were forming more of a team bond in that gesture but it back fired. I see squeakers as choking hazards and annoyances, my current pup destroys any plush toy in less than 5 minutes anyways so I just buy ropes and rawhides now, gotta watch those though, can be problematic with blockages.

Birds absolutely do squeak when you squeeze them, so do rabbits. Which is why it is 100% natural for the noise to bring out a dog's prey drive when they hear it. Even after I took it away , years later I could take the squeak toy out and squeeze it once and that dog I mentioned would leap to his feet and come running towards the sound.

Just remember that because you didn't have a problem with one dog, or five dog's, that squeakers may not create a problem with the next. You can actually call in fox and coyote with squeaker toys. Why EVER take the chance of creating a problem when you don't have to??? Buy the toy and remove the squeaker if you feel he must have squeaker toys.

I meant to say that it isn't worth the risk. I thought I had mentioned that but it looks like I forgot to. I probably won't buy those kinds of toys ever again for my bird dogs. My point was not to worry too much if you already had done it, because you will probably be OK and there is no point in worrying about what is in the past. I guess birds squeak, especially smaller species and young ones.

No squeakies for the JRT. He rips them to shreds in 20 seconds. The setter never cared about toys of any kind.

Sharon wrote:No squeakies for the JRT. He rips them to shreds in 20 seconds. The setter never cared about toys of any kind.

reminds me of my youngest daughter's last text to me,,,she has a rescue pit bull (we rescued him for her, kept him till she got what she called a "real job" as an Assodiate Professor) -

that dog is sweet as the day is long,,,but powerful as it's long too

He took an "indestructible chew toy made of firehose,,,,had it shredded in less than a day,,,,

some dogs are tough

and for the squeak toy thing - I am in the "no squeak toys" for my hunting dogs