Games, Play and Tricks

Related
Dog Games
xxx

Games, Play, & Tricks^

Dogs love to play. Their owners, with any luck, do also. Spending quality time with a pup can mean wrestling with it, playing fetch the dildo, or just spending a few minutes rubbing its belly. Regardless of how you choose to play with your dog, you should play with it if you want it to be happy and well adjusted to its life.

Personally, I like to chase things. I love it when my MASTER throws something for me to fetch, or sends me after a cat or something. Soft flexible Frisbees and throwing toys can be fun, but a stick is just as much excitement and a lot cheaper - not to mention very appropriate. I love to gnaw on a good rubber bone or chew toy for hours at a time, and it's even better if someone throws it and sends me after it. Playing with other dogs is a lot of fun, both to do and to watch. It gets the animal inside out into the open where it can frolic and be free with a like minded creature.

Tricks are an interesting item, depending on the desires of the trainer they can be reinforced behaviours (like a command), or simple things a dog is expected to do for other's amusement. The classic is begging for a treat or scrap on its hind legs. Other fun tricks you might like to teach your dog are how to roll over, play dead, and "sit up" with its feet and ass on the ground, paws in the air at its chest, muzzle out and eyes up. I personally enjoy teaching a pup to lick or suck on command from this position as well.

Some tricks are repetitive - like bringing MASTER his slippers and paper when he gets home. These should be reinforced to some degree, but the animal's behaviour when doing so can also be used as a good indicator of mood.

Dogs will typically "bow" when they want to play, looking bright eyed and straight at you while placing the shoulders and chin close to the ground and the rump in the air.

Finally, I have found with experience that the most fun tricks are done off the cuff, with or without an audience. Sending your boy after a beer in the bar can be a fun and even impressive thing to watch provided he can work out how to do it as a dog. Anything else you can think of getting him to do as a dog can be fun with the proper state of mind - the trick lies in the animal finding a way to do it like a dog, and the impression it makes or the sense of pride it evokes from its MASTER when executed well is the reward.