Clean Run Magazine - July 2009 - 74

By Pat Miller Puppies love to play. Puppies that are well-socialized love to play with humans. While play behavior itself is not genetic, the propensity to be reinforced by play is. A young pup ventures a little play behavior, gets a positive response from mom or a sibling, and the behavior is reinforced. If a human appropriately encourages play, playing with humans is reinforced. Behaviors that are reinforced are maintained or are increased, so the pup plays again, gets reinforced again, and the result is a playful pup that grows into a playful dog. That’s why play can be such a great training tool. Be sure to nurture this valuable quality by encouraging and reinforcing appropriate play with your pup, rather than discouraging it. A pup with great potential for retrieving can all-too-easily have useful behavior suppressed by an owner who punishes her pup for picking things up in his mouth and playing with them. Rather than punishing, puppy-proof your home and manage your baby dog with leashes, baby gates, crates, and indoor tethers to keep him from practicing behaviors you don’t want. And play with him. There’s nothing like a good game to enhance your dog’s training, performance, motivation, attention, relationship, responsiveness, attitude, coordination, mental acuity, and physical fitness. Whew! That’s a long list, and I’ve probably left some out, but suffice it to say that playing games with your puppy can do wonders for his future canine sports career. Let the Games Begin The following games are not only fun for you and your pup, but each can also serve a specific function for one or more canine sports. Incorporate them all into your repertoire and you and your canine athlete will be a well-rounded team, hopefully excelling at your chosen activities and having fun doing it. Chase Me Dog owners tend to take for granted a pup’s natural inclination to stick close to his human. When puppy dependency wears off and the adolescent starts to range farther afield, the owner has to work extra hard to train a super recall. You can avoid that trap by playing the Chase Me game with your baby dog. When your pup is in high-energy mode, run a few steps away from him as you encourage him to follow with inviting, high-pitched sounds. When he gets to you, toss a toy, play tug, scratch him under the chin, or provide some other reinforcer that he loves, then run away again. He should quickly start romping after you when you run away. Clean Run | July 09 The definition of game depends largely on your mindset. To your pup, almost any activity that doesn’t hurt or scare him can be turned into a game. This gives you wide latitude to incorporate a lot of training-related fun stuff into your game chest. While it’s perfectly okay to play just for the sake of playing, you might as well play games that support your goal of a winning performance dog. Be Variable and Unpredictable Recently deceased, acclaimed positive trainer and highly successful canine competitor Patty Ruzzo used to exhort dog owners and trainers to be variable and unpredictable. Her point was that if you are fun and exciting enough, your dog will want to be with you rather than sniffing the ground, gazing into space, or chasing after bunnies. One way to always be fun enough is to always have several games up your sleeve (that’s the variable part) and burst into play, often when your pup least expects it (the unpredictable part). Remember: initiating a fun game when your dog is doing something you like (like paying attention) reinforces that behavior. If you initiate play when you’ve lost your dog’s attention, you might well get his attention back; but if you do it consistently, you’ll reinforce distracted behavior. Your pup will learn to wander and sniff to get you to do something fun, and he’ll likely go back to sniffing as soon as the fun thing is over. Instead of squeaking and tossing a stuffed toy to get his attention when he’s distracted, whip it out of your pocket and toss it when he’s walking beside you, completely tuned in to you. Good behavior makes fun happen. 74

Clean Run Magazine - July 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run Magazine - July 2009