Let Your Dog Learn to Play
For convenience, we will refer to your dog as "he" rather than "he or she".
Some owners are so focused on training their dogs that they forget the importance of allocating time to play, and often do not realise that some dogs need to be taught how to play.
This means that play can be considered an integral part of training.
If you have found a particular aspect of the training to be somewhat stressful, you too will benefit from this play time.
Let us consider a few suitable games that almost all dogs enjoy and find easy to master.
1) Fetch.
This is great fun for you and your dog, as well as being one of the most beneficial games your dog can learn.
Your dog will never seem to tire of this game and one of the positive outcomes of this is that he will get a lot of good physical exercise.
Many owners also reap this benefit.
There is an old joke which says that dogs can teach their owners to fetch much faster that the owners can teach their dogs to fetch! This is a great way of promoting coordination and balance and anticipation.
2) Hide and Seek Dogs will find this activity to be full of fun.
Try hiding one of his favourite toys and telling him to "find it".
Start by hiding it in easy to find locations and gradually make the searches harder to complete.
Do not persist with failed searches because the locations were too difficult to find.
The main point of the game is to have fun and enjoy the activity.
3) Tug of War While this game can be very enjoyable, there is a risk that it can promote aggression in your dog.
If your dog shows signs of unhealthy aggression when playing this game, it is time to find a new game to play.
4) Catch In some ways this can be viewed as a variation on "fetch".
The object of the game is to have your dog catch a ball or other suitable object in mid air, when you throw it up within reach of your dog.
Begin by gently throwing a soft toy or a treat towards his mouth.
If he does not catch it, try to retrieve it from the ground or floor before he does.
One of the main aims of the game is to promote coordination, so he must learn to catch the object in mid-air before it reaches the ground or floor and is then considered to be "out of play".
I wish you every training success and years of enjoyment for both you and your dog.
Some owners are so focused on training their dogs that they forget the importance of allocating time to play, and often do not realise that some dogs need to be taught how to play.
This means that play can be considered an integral part of training.
If you have found a particular aspect of the training to be somewhat stressful, you too will benefit from this play time.
Let us consider a few suitable games that almost all dogs enjoy and find easy to master.
1) Fetch.
This is great fun for you and your dog, as well as being one of the most beneficial games your dog can learn.
Your dog will never seem to tire of this game and one of the positive outcomes of this is that he will get a lot of good physical exercise.
Many owners also reap this benefit.
There is an old joke which says that dogs can teach their owners to fetch much faster that the owners can teach their dogs to fetch! This is a great way of promoting coordination and balance and anticipation.
2) Hide and Seek Dogs will find this activity to be full of fun.
Try hiding one of his favourite toys and telling him to "find it".
Start by hiding it in easy to find locations and gradually make the searches harder to complete.
Do not persist with failed searches because the locations were too difficult to find.
The main point of the game is to have fun and enjoy the activity.
3) Tug of War While this game can be very enjoyable, there is a risk that it can promote aggression in your dog.
If your dog shows signs of unhealthy aggression when playing this game, it is time to find a new game to play.
4) Catch In some ways this can be viewed as a variation on "fetch".
The object of the game is to have your dog catch a ball or other suitable object in mid air, when you throw it up within reach of your dog.
Begin by gently throwing a soft toy or a treat towards his mouth.
If he does not catch it, try to retrieve it from the ground or floor before he does.
One of the main aims of the game is to promote coordination, so he must learn to catch the object in mid-air before it reaches the ground or floor and is then considered to be "out of play".
I wish you every training success and years of enjoyment for both you and your dog.
