Maybe try keeping the sessions really short, like 30 seconds to a minute. Everytime she looks at the squeaker ball, click and treat. Try this for a few sessions (maybe 3-5) and then start moving the ball around. If she follows it with her eyes or tries to get it, click and treat. Again, keep the sessions short, and maybe try 5 sessions with this. Within a few sessions, she should start pawing at it or trying to grab it. If not, let me know & we'll do some more trouble shooting. :)

This is what I've been looking for. My dog used to play with toys all the time now she doesn't as much.

what if your dog really does not care if you have food? my shiba inu is not intrested in toys or food..

@gimptech2009 That's an excellent question! With deaf doggies, you obviously wouldn't use a clicker, so you reward with a treat only. Use specific hand signals in place of verbal cues. :)

I use lots of treats! Zukes, Stella and Chewy's, chicken, cheese, hot dogs and salmon paws are the ones I use most in training.

Can we still do this without a clicker? Is it possible just to do this by making a clicking sound of your own??

My teacup chihuahua is small, he doesn't play at all... only when i pet him crazy and it lasts for like seconds. He's lazy, never plays with toys, takes a dump anywhere, sleeps all the time. like the only thing i trained him how to do paw. he's hyper but doesn't do like what i said in the 2nd sentence...

Good work

@LaraJane2BCN That dog IS on a diet. I wrote about that in the description. :)

i have 2 small energetic dogs i took one into a room at a time and tried this but they just went for the treats they dont even look at the toy they just jump up and try to grab the treats they can't focus on the toy and even without the treats they won't even look at the toy what should i do

@gimptech2009 Here's what I would do in that situation. I would start off by training the dog in a place with out any distractions whatsoever. Probably a room in my house. I would put a ball down and when he was barking, I would ignore it. When he is quite, I would treat him. Then once he got to the point where the ball had no effect, I would roll it gently. Again, when he's quite and doesn't bark, he gets a reward. Once he gets that down, I would take the training outside.

Is this teaching them to like playing with the toy, or just to engage with it. I want her to play with it for enjoyment not to perform or try to gain some other result