More Play! Trying out the Teaser Pole

Salinas' serendipitous tennis ball find and the subsequent play session that it inspired gave me the idea to try out my Tail Teaser toy with Chima. While Salinas' play involves more romping and throwing things around, Chima's play is all about practicing the kill. She has a high prey drive and no matter if the toy is a floppy stuffed animal or your average tennis ball, her instinct is to run around pouncing on the toy and practicing her "death shake" on it. So my Tail Teaser seemed like a perfect toy for Chima. The Tail Teaser (TT) is a long pole with a rope attached and at the end, a furry squeaky "tail" that is drug around. Of course it would be easy enough to make your own but the one I use is made by Kyjen and you can now buy replacement tails for it. 

Chima catches the tail

While Chima is quite wary of humans, when it comes to new objects she is the less frightened of the two girls so I didn't expect this to be something she would be nervous about. I do think initially when she caught it the first time she was a little disappointed that she couldn't then disconnect the toy and go enjoy it at a greater distance from me. I on the other hand loved that this would be a game we could play together that she would actually enjoy and not just tolerate. In this video you see her being introduced to the TT for the first time and learning that it was a pretty fun game. 

Chima is pretty fast and quite effective at catching her prey so it wasn't long before she had the squeaky in her mouth. At first she attempted to take her prize somewhere away from me to enjoy more thoroughly but when she realized that it wasn't going to release from the pole, she laid down for some squeaky fun. 

Tail Teaser game combines chasing, tugging and squeaking - what's not to love?

One thing that has been a struggle is getting enough exercise for Chima. I'm trying to help her lose some weight but she's not even close to a point where she's comfortable with me putting a harness on her. So I think getting in 20-30 minutes each day of this high speed chase game is going to be great exercise for her. It will not only help her lose weight, but will also help her better manage her anxiety. Exercise of the body has the great side effect of helping animals psychologically as well.

While all this fun was happening, Salinas was skittishly watching from the edge of the lawn. It all just seemed a bit too scary for her and she also tends to steer clear of Chima when Chima gets into "prey play" mode. Probably a good idea. But after awhile she came to inspect the tail. 

After a close sniff while Chima was squeaking it, Salinas started to follow along during the chase, not really joining in, but sticking close to the game. Once she seemed really interested in playing and wasn't concerned about the TT being dangerous I tried to keep the tail closer to her so she had a chance against Chima who is an instinctual hunter and very good at this game. She loved this and before long was actively part of the game.

Unlike her sister, Salinas is not naturally talented at catching prey so it took her awhile before she actually caught the toy. I couldn't make it too easy because then Chima would just swoop in and steal it. Eventually though Salinas was able to make her move and she caught the toy.  Chima was a good sport and waited her turn while Salinas got her squeak on.

I think I was having as much fun as the girls throughout this activity. It was just plain fun to play with them, but it was also rewarding to watch Chima enjoying interacting with me in this game she understood and was good at. It was also an amazing experience to watch Salinas go from very afraid of the toy to actually taking part of the game and joining in. More amazing work from my dynamic foster duo!