Rescue has never played before

SamueleC · Jul 15, 2025

So, my girlfriend and I just rescued a basset hound who we believe is around 7 years old from a farmer who recently passed. Although he grew up as a farm/outside dog, he has made the transition to the comfy/indoor life seamlessly. He is incredibly friendly and will stop literally any time a person walks by so they can pet him. He’s very healthy and we just love him dearly.

The problem we have is that he has never played in his life. We know that he slept outside for most of his life, went on hunts with his previous owner, and has never had a toy in his life. Because of this, he doesn’t know how to play with any toys we’ve given him. There are times where it looks like he wants to play (just the dog feelings/instincts) but when I try to get him going, he doesn’t end up playing around. We feel terrible when we have to leave him at home because he doesn’t have much to do. He sleeps a lot (as a basset does), but when he’s awake he just wanders and doesn’t even look at toys we leave lying around. The closest we got him to play with with a peanut butter filled Kong, but he mainly just chews on it to get to the peanut butter.

Is there any way to teach a dog how to play? He’s very friendly with people and dogs but we can tell he does get nervous around most dogs (not snappy nervous just kind of letting them sniff him while he stands there). I’d love to be able to have fun with him, I just don’t know if it’s too late.

Curls · Jul 15, 2025

I wouldn't worry about lack of interest in toys. My junior dog has had toys all his life. When he hit adulthood he mostly stopped playing with them. He's just not a toy motivated dog.

For any dog I think it's helpful to introduce them to the basics of manners and obedience via clicker training. The Kikopup channel on YouTube has lots of exercises you can follow.

Since your guy is a scent hound, I'd play games with him that work his nose and his hunting instincts. A toy he might enjoy is the Kong Wobbler. Fill it with several flavors of dog kibble and let him push the Wobbler around. You could also set up treasure hunts in your house. Take a handful of treats and hide them around the house: under the coffee table, on a footstool, behind the kitchen door, etc. Then let him roam around finding the treats. You could also work more formally on scentwork training.

Madra Anamchara · Jul 16, 2025

Some dogs are playful with toys and others are not. It's possible that your dog will learn to enjoy toys but it doesn't matter if he doesn't. I think the suggestion above from @Curls to train the dog to do some things, maybe a few tricks in addition to basics, will go a long way toward helping your dog to feel happy. Hide-and-seek or hunting games are also a great suggestion.

If you really want to try to teach your dog to play you can try teaching him to fetch something, which is also a good way for him to get a little exercise even indoors. I have trained this by wrapping up something yummy in a cloth and tying it tightly, then tossing it across the room where there is another person. The other person calls the dog, rewards him for coming by giving a little treat from their pocket, gives him the wrapped-up treats, and then you call the dog back to you. He gets rewarded only when he brings the wrapped up ball back to you. The reason for wrapping up the treats in a cloth is so that he will want to take it in his mouth. If he is willing to go back and forth like that to get rewarded with a treat (taken from your pocket, not the wrapped-up thing) then you can transition to a toy. Eventually the dog may decide that retrieving the toy is fun in itself. But not all dogs want to retrieve, so this doesn't always work.

Rescue has never played before

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