There’s nothing quite like seeing a dog’s butt wiggle and tail wag when presented with a new toy to play with. For many dogs though, the true delight comes when they discover that the toy has a squeaker. The house is filled with the noise of the squeaky toy being chomped on, and hours, or even days of squeaky fun will surely follow. Why do dogs love toys that squeak so much? Let’s find out.
Natural born hunters
It’s in their DNA (kind of). Back when dogs were wolves (many years ago), they would typically hunt things smaller than they are. And those small animals that fell prey to your dog’s ancestors often made a noise when they were caught and that memory lives on in your dog even to this day. And what sound was that? That’s right, it was a “squeak”.
So when you give your dog a brand new squeaky toy to play with, that noise is satisfying their urge to hunt and catch their prey. Of course terriers still hunt things that squeak all across the world today, so it’s no surprise that Jack Russells, Westies and Scotties are some of the most enthusiastic toy squeakers. Smaller dogs will furiously and frantically get the most out of any toy squeaker, and they even enjoy ripping the toy to bits to make it stop squeaking – there’s that predator drive again.
