Dog Toys

Friday, June 7, 2013

Dog Toys

    My wife Heidi have a poodle by the name of Buddy. Yesterday, I came up with the idea about adding a post about antique toys for dogs.  However, ever time I searched for toys for dogs, all I kept getting were dog toys (for people). There's not a lot of selection of toys for dogs as there are for children. But I figured that maybe there were those squeaky rubber toys from the 1900's or maybe pull toys.  No way!

   So having looked and looked, I simply changed course, and decided to post about dog toys for children.  There were thousands of listings on Liveauctioneers, and I decided to focus on very early toys from the late 1800's. 

Buddy

     Everyone who sees that photo thinks it's a masterpiece. The truth of the matter is that it was an accident. Buddy, had had his hair cut, and Heidi wanted to have a photograph of him. My camera wasn't set properly, and I took about 20 photos, and all were either out-of-focus, off-colour, or had too much contrast.

Please click to be directed to Bertoia's fine website

     Most of today's toys are mechanical banks. These toys were extremely popular from the 1860's - 1920's. There are literally thousands of different models from the many different companies that produced them. As a mechanical toy, a movement usually involves the  main character or figure doing something. In the case of banks, it's always depositing the coin into a slot. The above movement is one of the more complicated ones, as the dog enters the bank with a coin, goes into the bank, and comes out without the coin. In this case, a small handle causes what I assume is a gear to move the dog along. Most other banks are cocked like a gun trigger, and when you release a small trigger, the character moves to deposit the coin. 

   In case you can;t figure out  what should happen, I'll tell you. A coin is placed on the  owner's hands, and the dog advances, grabs the coin in his mouth, backs up, then drops the coin into a hole underneath his body.

   The toy above is called a pull toy. As a child pulls the toy, the dog moves into the bell, causing it to ring.

     The toy above is called an automaton. A hidden series of com;lex (or simple) gears create a movement in the toy.In this case, the clown appears to peddle in a circle on a unicycle, as the dog is  chasing him.

    Here's an interesting wind-up mechanical toy. As the rider moves forward, the dog will appear to hop and move forward.

     Here's a wind-up mechanical bank toy. A coin is placed into the mouth of the dog, and when the trigger is reelased, the dog wil jump through the hoop, and deposit the coin into the barrel.

     Here's a great wind-up toy.  I especially like the way the wind-up key is camouflaged  with the same pattern as the walker's suit. What will happen is that the 2 dogs will appear to be reluctant to go for their walk, and will be pulling back. 

     Today, being a rainy day again, Buddy was like that. However 2 hour laters when the rain stopped he decided to inform me that it was now time to go for a walk. Sometimes I wonder if I tell him what to do or he tells me!

    For dure, I'll be posting several more dog toys as there are simply too many interesting toys to post just once.

Thanks for the visit,

and have a great part of the day

wherever you may be.

Stacey