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The Joy of Play

The holidays can be a time to create warm memories with family, friends, and hopefully your dog. Play is much more than just a good time with your dog and a way to burn off some excess energy. When we look deeper into the emotional aspects of your dog’s behavior, play creates an opportunity for your dog to tap into positive emotional channels that release happy hormones. When your dog accesses these positive emotional outlets and practices these hormone releases, it will have positive consequences in other life experiences. Just like with humans, if we practice being happy and joyful more often, our brain falls in that direction more easily in more difficult times. If we want to be happy, we have to focus on positive mental thoughts. Play with your dog is a great way to practice accessing those happy thoughts!

Here are a few ways to enjoy play with your dog:

Keep play structured with goals and guidelines, not a chaotic free for all.
If your dog gets over stimulated with biting and jumping all over you, keep play sessions short and end before your dog gets chaotic.
Stop and start during a play session so your dog can practice toggling their energy level.
Make play a reward for good behavior.
Use a variety of textures during play to find the items that motivate your dog.
Play should mimic a prey cycle and can contain stalking (hiding from your dog, moving toward them slowly), chasing (dog chases a throw object or one you hold on to and move in a variety of directions), tug (tug of war with fluid, circular motions with the toy to ensure the dog doesn’t injure their neck or shoulders), celebration (your dog takes a toy and prances off with it showcase their trophy win) and consumption (dog gets to chew on the toy, maybe even remove the stuffing).

The truths about play myths:

Let your dog win! This is so important that the dog can pull a toy away from you. This DOES NOT create dominance. Joy in any experience comes when you have success, so give your dog a chance to feel like they succeeded.
It’s fine for dogs to growl during play. This represents a higher level of engagement. It is important to toggle their energy so this intensity level can de- escalate also.
Play does not make your dog aggressive when we incorporate a structured experience. Again, this is a great time to toggle emotional levels and create an experience for your dog to learn to de-escalate.

We would love to teach you more about the benefits of play in an emotional-based training process. Reach out and let’s chat about building your dog’s confidence through play and help your family enjoy play time with your dog!