THE OTHER END OF THE LEASH

At the risk of sounding self-serving, I wanted to write about Willie’s new favorite toy. We do sell it on the website, but we sell it because our dogs think it is the best thing that happened since liver and chicken.

It’s called a Canine Genuis Brain Twister, presumably because it was designed for dogs who love to shake things. Truth be told, I’m not sure where the ‘genuis’ part comes in, nor does the thought of my dog’s brain twisting make me happy, but as luck would have it, Willie can’t read and pays no attention to such humanly concerns.

Here’s a photo of it: (I have one of Willie playing with it but forgot to bring the cord to connect the camera to  my computer. sigh. I’ll add the pic sometime soon when I can get my brain organized.)

What you can’t tell from this photo is that it’s about 14″ long twisted and twice that uncoiled. It’s soft and plush and a great size for a medium or large dog. Willie has played with his relentlessly for a week and it, to my amazement, shows no signs of wear. Yet. Do not hold your breath. But I am interested in his response: he usually is a tearer and ripper… give him something he can disembowel and he’ll make quick work of it. I buy toys like that on occasion when I figure we both need a little luxury in life. He rips the $12.99 toy into shreds in 5 minutes, and I say “Well, it’s just as good as a dinner out!”  But one can’t feed one’s dog $13 toys on a daily basis, at least not if you still need some money to buy dog food, much less food for you and your family. This toy, because it is so fun to shake, doesn’t seem to bring out Will the Ripper. Yet.

I’ll keep you posted. We are big on toys this week at the office, and I’d love to know what new toys you’ve found that you like. Will and Denise’s Cooper are also crazed over another toy called Plush Leo With Stuffies (who comes up with these names anyway, she asked, respectfully?). It’s one of those great toys with toys inside of it. Will can pull the inner toys out in seconds, but he absolutely adores the toys inside. (He likes the carrot best. Such a healthy choice.) They are his favorite toy to bring to me to play fetch with him. They are also great for hiding (but also small enough that I’d be careful with them around large dogs….)

His other favorites are still the Chewber, Skinneeze, Planet Dog’s balls and a half chewed up rubber tube used by dairy farmers. I’d love to hear about your dog’s favorites…

Wheeeee, the new 1/2 day seminar on play that I did in California a few weeks ago is out now on DVD, thanks to lots of hard work by Alta at Tawzer Videos. You can learn more about Dog Play on my website, but here’s the summary:

The seminar focused on three aspects of canine play:

1) The Natural History of Play: What IS play after all? Who plays and Why? (Those questions turn out to be much more complicated than you might think and have all kinds of interesting implications for us and our dogs!)

2) Play Between Dogs: What do we know about the development of play in dogs? The seminar includes new research out of Barbara Smut’s lab in Michigan about the development of play in dogs and what is “natural” and what is not. It also includes an in-depth discussion, with lots of videos, about what is appropriate and what is inappropriate play.

3) Play Between Dogs and People: This section summarizes the good, the bad and the ugly about play between two species, who are both attracted by our shared high levels of play as adults, and troubled by mis-communications that occur when members of two different species don’t learn one another’s play signals and play styles.

The DVD is about three hours long, and although I guarantee you that it’s not perfect, I am a little embarrassed to admit how much time was spent tweaking edits, smoothing transitions and dying a thousand deaths while watching myself, my double chin and my silly hair do. If you think you don’t like photographs of yourself, try watching yourself on video. But what’s important is the content, and I’m pleased to say that people at the seminar seemed to find it interesting and enjoyable. I love the topic myself, and love the interplay of science and daily life with dogs. I hope you enjoy it too.

Meanwhile, when you read this we’ll be on our way to the Maasai Mara, staying at Tipilikwani Camp right by the river. On the drive there from Amboseli, we’ll stop to get gas, discover that our urine does not fall straight out of our bodies as we try to aim for a tiny hole in the ground in the “rest room,” and no doubt watch some typical ‘village’ dogs hang out in the shade. Here’s some from a previous trip, showing the universal display of status and active submission seen in dogs around the world:

The seminar in Arroyo Grande was great fun; the hosts at Gentle Touch Pet Training could not have been kinder, more supportive or better organized. The afternoon half day session on Play was a joy–and all that work creating a new seminar felt well worth it by the end of the day. During the Play Seminar and the Dog-Dog Reactivity sessions I got lots of questions from the audience, some of which I was able to answer that day, but some of which I didn’t get to. I thought I’d address some now, since there were some great ones that I thought deserved an answer.

One written question related to dogs who are over reactive when they see other dogs: “Is there ever a point where you give up on behavior modification and recommend strict management only?” Good question, yes? And the answer is YES and NO. There are certainly times in which I recommend strict management practices must always be followed. For example, I showed a video of a dog named Oscar, whose owners worked with me for over two years. Oscar was adopted from a shelter, taken to dog training class a few weeks later, walked into the door of the classroom and immediately crushed the skull of a young beagle after briefly sniffing it. What a nightmare. However, because of the dedicated work of the owners, Oscar changed from a dog who became physiologically hysterical when he even saw a dog blocks away, to a dog who was able to be loose in my pasture with Luke and Lassie. Except for one thing: Oscar had on a muzzle, and I strongly recommended that Oscar never ever ever be let loose around an unfamiliar dog without a muzzle. Not after causing that much damage, and not after starting as a dog unable to control himself at just the sight of another dog.

But I said “Yes” AND “No” because there are very few contexts in which some behavior modification isn’t useful. Oscar would never be let loose with unfamiliar dogs or taken to a dog park, but he could be taken to the vet clinic without causing a scene, and walking him on a leash was no longer a nightmare. For any dog, I would base my recommendations on how serious the problem was, how much time and interest the owners had to do behavior modification, and the goals of the owners. Bottom line, I’m always an advocate of “better safe than sorry.”

I’m not sorry we got to go to the central coast of California though. It was gorgeous, and we spent an ‘animal rapture’ hour watching Elephant Seals a few miles north of San Simeon (we skipped the Hearst Castle in favor of the seals, pretty clear where our priorities lie!). This time of year the sub-adult and adult males are on the coast to shed their coats (they actually lose an layer of skin too, and look pretty tacky before they are done.) The young males especially spend some of their time sparring together, in preparation no doubt for the breeding season to come this winter. Some of them weren’t doing much self-handicapping, we saw quite a few with bloody necks, although nothing like the wounds seen when they are fighting for real.

Here’s an older male (you can tell by the size of their ‘noses’.. their noses start as little Jimmy Durante buds and grow each year to absurd proportions). This one was all by himself, but making a heck of a racket as he displayed in the waves. (By the way, you can’t get an idea of size in these photos, but males can grow up to 6,000 pounds! These animals are HUGE!)

These two young males (see their smaller noses?) were quite the pair, bellowing and mock biting at each other for the longest time. There were 2 other pairs doing the exact same thing right beside them. Jim got this picture, and about 150 more! It was an amazing experience to watch them, and if you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it. Breeding season is in February, I’d love to go back and watch, then drive up the coast to see the Monarch butterflies hibernating in Big Sur.

I can’t write much, I’ve been deep in preparation for the new seminars I’m doing in Arroyo Grande at Gentle Touch Pet Training this Sunday and we’re leaving for the airport in a few hours. Predictably, we are in the usual flurry of last minute packing, house sprucing and training of new house sitter. As much as I hate leaving Lassie and Will (I’m sorry Lassie, I’ll be back soon, I promise), I am truly looking forward to this trip. Both 1/2 day seminars should be great fun. The half day Play Play Play seminar is completely new, and I can’t wait to present it. (And will be available as a DVD sometime soon, I’ll keep you posted!) I am also, admittedly, relieved that I’ve got it finished, at least until I decide to tweak it some more on Saturday. (These things are never finished, are they?!)  The seminar has tons of video (it took me 3 hours to burn the videos onto 5 different DVDs. It takes an absurd amount of time to create videos for seminars, although you’d never know it when you see it. On Wednesday I spent 3 hours creating less than 3 minutes of video. Good grief.) and I am looking forward to discussing the ever-burning question to all of us immersed in dogs: what play is appropriate and healthy, and what is over the line? When do you intervene? And how?

I’m also looking forward to the 1/2 day on Dog-Dog Reactivity. I’ll be doing some of what I’ve always done (a la Feisty Fido) and some new things inspired by Karen’s and my revision of the Feisty Fido booklet, Second Edition. (Coming out next week, oh boy! I’ll keep you posted on that too.)

Meanwhile, back at the farm: Here’s the Black Raspberry, Rhubarb and Strawberry Pie I made on Sunday. One of you asked for the recipe: It’s simple, just use the Joy of Cooking’s recipe for Rhubarb/Strawberry Pie but substitute the raspberries for one third of it. The only trick I know is to use Tapioca as a thickener when you’re using rhubarb. I’ve never had any luck at all with corn starch or flour, (although lots of other people seem too, go figure… cooking must be like dog training!)

It rained hard again this morning; I don’t remember a summer when we’ve had so much rain. That’s a good thing for the farm, I don’t have enough pasture for my little flock and rain keeps the grass growing as fast as the sheep can eat it. We are all enjoying the bounty of summer; this is the trail behind the house to the orchard pasture, and it is edged with buckets of black raspberries. (Would that they came in buckets, instead of interspersed with lots of prickers and a bevy of mosquitos!) I’ve been picking like a fool, and so has Jim, and so far we have 6 quarts of berries in the freezer, along with 9 quarts of strawberries and 5 of rhubarb. I just love the idea of making pies in the icy dead of winter, with fruit from the lush of summer.

xx

Not going to write much, am a bit tuckered from doing an all day seminar at Happy Tails in Portland and an evening speech at Planet Dog in Portland, Maine. Both events were hosted by great folks and had educated, informed audiences that were a joy to work with. The talk at Planet Dog was on play (appropriate for a company that makes dog toys, hey?) and reminded me how interesting play is to biologists. It’s common in many species, it’s dangerous and injurious and no one really knows what makes it worth all the risks. Especially relevant to our relationship to dogs is our mutual love of “object play,” which is not very common in most species. There are exceptions, (river otters, etc.), but few species are as obsessed as dogs and people are about balls, frisbees, etc.  I’m inspired for my next seminar in July in California–an entire morning on play. What fun.

The seminar was on dog-dog reactivity, both between unfamiliar dogs and dogs within the same household. The demo dogs were great and the audience was truly lovely to work with. I am, however, a bit droopy, and I’m committed to keeping my laptop shut for TWO ENTIRE DAYS (oh my!) and visit a dear friend in New Hampshire.  I’ll be back in the ‘world’ on Wednesday. My sincere thanks to all my hosts and helpers… you were great.

Meanwhile, back at the farm: I MISS MY DOGS! (and Jim, and Sushi, and sheep……)

Here are some photos for you:

Okay, this is a trite shot of boats in a harbor, but it sure looks different than the farm!

Here’s some of the good staff at Planet Dog in their retail store. The place makes me want to retire and do nothing but play with my dogs!

This license plate is thanks to the work of BOTH Planet Dog AND Happy Tails (and others), who worked to get a state license plate whose income goes to shelters and animal care. How cool is that?  Shouldn’t we do this in other states?

“See” you next week….

Trisha

This morning I tried to get a good photo of Redford confronting Will, but failed miserably. That’s great news… I couldn’t get the photo because every time Will walked within twenty feet of Redford, the ram turned and walked away. I did take a few photos, but my battery died so I can’t upload them for you. I’ll send some before the end of the week, of Will and sheep, and hopefully, of Snickers new lambs, if she ever, finally, gives birth. (We are calling her Explodo-Ewe at the moment.)

Truffle’s little white lamb is filling out like a champ. He’s got all the milk to himself and is growing like crazy. He has started what I call “popcorn” play, which is pretty much like it sounds. First there is a lamb standing still, then there’s a lamb leaping straight up into the air. Except in this case, the lambs twist their bodies a bit, land, run a few feet and do it again. It’s lucky the weather is warm (in the 20’s!) because it’s hard for me to leave the barn, he’s so much fun to watch.

I wanted to write more about Will, the ram and “power” in a herding dog, because it was herding dogs that taught me about ‘body blocks’ and ’space management’ in dog training. (See Other End of the Leash or Family Dog Training.) There is no question that different dogs have a different effect on the same sheep: some dogs seem to take charge from a long way away while others have to get much closer to get the same effect. If a dog has what handlers call ‘power,’ the sheep will look at the dog, turn their heads looking for the best route away from the dog and leave, even if the dog is a good distance away. Other dogs have to get much closer to get the same effect, or can even cause the same sheep to stand their ground or charge forward. When I first got into herding I thought the difference in the dog was in it’s posture… the more extreme the stalking posture, the more intense the effect? But it soon became clear that wasn’t it.

The biggest difference that is obvious to us is vector of the dog’s energy. Is the dog standing still but leaning forward, standing square over its 4 feet or leaning backwards, even an eighth of an inch or so? Biologists call movements and postures that always preceed an action “intention movements” and there’s no doubt in my mind that sheep can read where a dog is ready to go next: forward, to “take the space,” or backwards, to protect itself and get away. I show a video in many of my seminars that show 3 different dogs working the same group of cattle, and the difference in the reaction of the cattle is amazing. One, clearly fearful dog (tongue flicks, looks back to handler often, ears back, body leaning backward.. ready to run away) ends up with the cattle walking right up to him and sniffing his nose. The most confident dog walks forward with what can only be described as presence, and the cattle take one look at him and turn away. Dogs are brilliant at sensing these movements too, which is why we all need to be thoughtful about how we move around our dogs. You can use them to your advantage (teaching stay for example) or get into trouble by leaning forward toward a dog who is nervous around strangers.

Intention movements going forward or backward are just one factor in the interaction between sheep and dog. Some dogs are so strong that they worry sheep and can’t be used in small areas. Other dogs seem to take charge easily without scaring the sheep. Ideally, a dog is calm and confident, neither overly reactive but ready to win a confrontation if necessary. Some dogs seem to love confrontations, it makes other nervous. All of these things seem to be read by sheep, which makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Many prey animals in the wild behave comfortably around predators who are not hunting, but then immediately go on alert when the predators, lions for example, decide it’s time to stop lazing around and go hunting.

Willie clearly is nervous about direct confrontations. He tongue flicked a couple of times and ran back into the barn as soon as I said “that’ll do,” even though Redford never turned to challenge him.

Okay, he’s not the bravest dog in the world, but the fact that he tries as hard as he can and tries to work through his fears makes me love him even more. Besides, Redford apparently decided that he’s not worth challenging, at least not this morning, so I am pleased and proud that things are going in Will’s direction…

Now, if Snickers would just, PLEASE, have her lambs tonight!

Sorry no photos, battery is charging as I write!

Two more posts about play from presentations at APDT: this one about play between people and dogs, and a post coming on Friday regarding Karen London’s presentation on using play to treat aggression-related behavior problems.

I spoke in the afternoon about play between people and dogs. It’s a rich topic, with many nuances and complexities, and I only I had 45 minutes to address it, so I focused primarily on two issues: the importance of clear signals and the importance of pausing to allow emotional arousal to keep from overwhelmed our dogs.

CLEAR SIGNALS: Play bows in dogs are truly unique; there is no other species that I could find that had quite as clear a signal that means “Hey! I want to play, and everything I do next is meant playfully!” (Also see my post on Oct 21st.) In relation to that, I discussed the research of Rooney, Bradshaw and Robinson (2001) who video taped people trying to get their dogs to play (without using toys.) They found that people tried a variety of actions to get their dogs to play, some were effective and some weren’t. (And there was no correlation between how frequently someone tried a behavior and how effective it was! I just love that.. it is so human.)

People, ineffectually, tried whispering, patting the ground, kissing the dog and barking at the dog (to name a few). The effective signals were play bows, lunge toward and away (also called “start/stop” in other literature), running toward and away and adding vocalizations to other actions. I video taped a raft of cooperative people replicating the above, and here’s what came up:

1. People are REALLY bad at playing bows, unless they are willing and able to get down on all fours! (We’re just not designed to do it, you really need 4 legs after all.)

2. Running, as Rooney et al found, is a powerful way to elicit play (and has it’s dangers too… see Play Together, Stay Together by Karen London and me.)

3. “Start/Stop” is the easiest way to get many dogs in a playful frame of mind, but again, can elicit mouthiness or nipping in dogs if you’re not careful.

Keep in mind that the research kept toys out of the picture… as many of your comments have noted: there’s nothing like picking up a toy in front of a toy-loving dog to say RECESS! LET’S PLAY!

The other primary point of my talk was that dogs tend to play hard and fast and then pause, so that play sessions look like strings of play PAUSE play play PAUSE play PAUSE. This is especially true when they are play fighting (and less true, I suspect, when they are chasing and running). Given how many aspects of play, especially play fighting, are the same actions you see in serious fights, it makes sense that something needs to be built into the system to keep them cool. My suggestion is that we need to explain this to our clients in beginning family dog training classes… I think every beginning class should include a “How to Play with Your Dog” section in it. People are going to do it whether we bring it up or not, and besides emphasizing the value of object play, we can give them guidelines and boundaries about other types of play. We all know that play can go bad in a hurry (“I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.”) and it’s important for us to help owners avoid that.

Overall, I argued that play is a wonderful, wonderful way to enhance our healthy relationships with dogs (and is probably one of the reasons dogs and people get along so well.. play really isn’t that common among adult mammals) BUT, we need to be sure dogs understand when we are and when we are not playing, and play in such a way as to avoid over arousal. Karen London and I talk at length about the value of play, and how to do safely and constructively in Play Together, Stay Together (linked above)… I’d love to get your feedback on the booklet if you have it, on whether you include “How to Play” in your family dog training curriculum and/or more on how YOU play with your dog.

Here’s me playing silly with the same statue from the last post….

Pia Silvani’s, Director of Behavior and Training at St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in New Jersey, gave a talk at APDT that focused on play between adult dogs, and it was a fantastic presentation. The best part of the talk was her videos of dogs playing–both appropriately and inappropriately. My absolute favorite was a video of two Tervurens meeting, greeting and eventually playing together beautifully. It was a like watching two strangers meet each other, and end up dancing as if they were on Dancing with the Stars. Several things stood out in the video that are, I think, important aspects of healthy dog play.

First of all, the dogs were able to meet each other one on one, without other dogs around. So often it seems that dogs get introduced into a ‘pack’ and are overwhelmed by 3 or 5 or 7 other dogs all trying to get access to them at the same time.

Secondly, the dogs weren’t forced into anything; they were able to approach and withdraw often, which is another way that dogs can avoid too much pressure during a greeting. This reminds me of the Ph.D. research of Dr. Anneke Lisberg from the University of Wisconsin, who did some of the first real research ever done on scent marking in domestic dogs (familiarity breeds contempt in science too!). She found that dogs entering a dog park were most likely to be the ones urinating after a greeting ritual with the resident dogs, and that the “newbee” often ended a close encounter by trotting a few feet away and urinating. Dr. Lisberg speculates that the entering dogs can avoid tension during greetings by walking away from close contact w/ other dogs and urinating a few feet away. It would be as if the dogs were providing information about themselves in their urine, on the ground, to avoid all those noses stuck up under their tails. Interesting, isn’t it? This makes me think about indoor day care facilities, where dogs are inhibited from urinating… I wonder if that causes problems? It does seem, on reflection, that all dogs should be able to meet and greet outside where they can use urine to communicate.

Thirdly, the Terv’s in Pia’s talk began to play with lots of play bows and ’stop/starts,’ done with a good distance between them. Gradually, as their play continued, they began to play closer and closer to each other, and finally began to make contact only after several minutes of mutual play. It really was one of the loveliest examples I’ve seen of two dogs reading one another and politely beginning a relationship.

Contrast that with the video she showed of a poor (Boston?) little dog being tossed into the mosh pit of a busy day care. The dog was literally swamped by 5 or 6 (I’m guessing here) other dogs who overwhelmed it, ran after it, surrounded it and basically terrified the poor thing, giving it no chance to get a breath much less manage to be appropriately greeted. Thank heavens, there are many, many day care facilities who are very careful when they introduce new dogs, starting with a one-on-one session with a known “good greeter” and then gradually introducing them to the entire group… would that they all did this, yes?

I’d be curious about your experiences with your dog, both while greeting and playing with unfamiliar dogs. My Willie, aka “I-came-with-so-many-issues-Trisha-called-me-the-Spawn-of-Satan once,” plays beautifully with other dogs IF I manage the introduction so that he doesn’t get overwhelmed. First impressions matter with dogs too, don’t they?!

Here’s Pia mugging with a statue in Louisvile:

Speaking of great play between dogs, I recently visited some dear friends who I met through our mutual love of Great Pyrenees. Here are 2 photos of Czar, Tundra and Osa the Newfie playing as beautifully as dogs can play. What a joy it was to watch them!

And here’s yet another view of fall at the farm. Sorry, I just can’t stop myself.

Camille Ward and  Barbara Smuts gave a fascinating talk at the APDT Play Symposium on “Play and the Development of Social Relationships in Litters of Domestic Dogs.” Their research (and that of their colleague, Erika Bauer) has focused on play in the domestic dog. They discussed two issues related to play in both puppies and adult dogs:

50/50 Rule: Years ago a scientist hypothesized that, for play fighting to work, the participants would have to switch roles about 50 % of the time. In other words, related to dogs, half the time one pup  should be on top in the “assertive position,” and the other pup should be on top the rest of the time. As Camille explained to us, this speculation, as often happens in science and other fields, slowly turned into “fact” (without the benefit of any actual observations or research!)

For example, look at this quote from “The Development of Aggression” by Tremblay, Hartup and Archer, 2005:

“For play fighting to remain playful, it needs to follow the 50:50 rule (Aldis 1975; Altmann 1962). That is, each pairmate has to win close to 50% of the playful encounters.”

Camille and Barbara tested this assumption in 3 litters which were observed as they developed in about 2,000 instances of play between two individuals (at 3-8 weeks, and at 10-23 weeks for 2 litters, and the third litter also at 27-40 weeks). They found that the 50/50 rule did NOT apply–12 of the 15 pairs in the first 2 litters observed did not reverse roles symmetrically. As a matter of fact, one female from the third litter was ‘on top’ 100% of the time, but her litter mate still initiated play preferentially with her.

In an earlier study, Dr. Erika Bauer and Dr. Smuts also tested the 50/50 rule in adult dogs at a dog park, and Dr. Smuts reported that there too, the 50/50 rule was not upheld. (By the way, it wasn’t reported at APDT, but this work also found that role reversals…. you mount me and then I mount you back….occurred during certain types of play, but not others. Chases and tackles were initiated by either partner, but mounts, muzzle bites and muzzle licks were consistently performed by the same dog. Perhaps certain types of play may be good indicators of social relationships between dogs?  Let me know if this fits with your own observations of play between your dogs or your dog and friends at the dog park.

Another aspect of Dr. Ward’s talk was about partner preferences. She found that (out of 1,300 instances of play initiation), the young puppies from 3 to 8 weeks showed no partner preference, the 10-23 week old pups the same, but the older juveniles (27-40 weeks) began to show strong preferences to play with one other individual from their litter. This preference was stable across time periods, and suggests that dog often form long lasting bonds with other dogs that should be acknowledged. The fact that some of our dogs become close friends with other dogs is, of course, not news to us, but I think it is important to remind ourselves that long-term stable relationships with another dog might be important to the dogs who live with people but not another member of the same species.

I think about that with my Will, who plays with Lassie several times a day, but I wouldn’t say they are close friends.  Will adores a  young Cavalier King Charles Spaniel… Brody, who comes to visit on occassion, but is moving to Florida soon. I’d love to get Will  a play mate, but hesitate to get another dog during Lassie’s last years. I am pretty darn sure she is not interested in sharing any more of  my attention… it’s tough, isn’t it, when you know one dog needs something that is the opposite of what the other dogs needs.  Will does have some other play buddies, but I think I should go out of my way to find him more; he and Brody seemed to have a special connection. I wonder if he will miss him? (I will! Not to mention missing his human!)

Speaking of play–here’s my colleague and dear friend Dr. Karen London, ‘playing’ on our way to dinner in downtown Louisvile.

Apologies for not writing sooner, but I’ve just come out of one of those “work tunnels” that we all experience from time to time.  What a joy to have come up for air and work Willie on sheep, rub Lassie’s creamy soft belly and go on a bike ride with Jim.

But, there’s so much to tell you about the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Conference last week in Kentucky.  I was only able to attend for two days, because I had to get back to give another speech on Sunday. I know I missed some great talks the last days at APDT, but I want to tell you about some of the great information that was presented at the Symposium on Play on Thursday. An entire day was devoted to the topic of play, and it was a joy to be able to go into a topic in depth.

(Truth in Lending: I’m not objective about this at all. I suggested the idea of a day-long symposium on play to APDT, after attending the Ph.D. defense of Camille Ward in Ann Arbor, Michigan last summer. She did her research, under the mentorship of Dr. Barbara Smuts, on play in domestic dog pups. I was on her committee, and was so inspired by her research that I starting thinking about what a huge topic play is, and how it deserved an entire day at a conference.  The folks at APDT (thanks Ian and Marion!) liked the idea and off we went designing a day of speakers…

So, I’ll give you a summary of each of the talks for the next couple of days, beginning with a few points from my Introduction to the Symposium, if you’ll bear with me. Tomorrow I’ll tell you about Camille’s research findings, and later about Pia Silvani and Karen London’s excellent talks. Ian Dunbar wrapped it all up in a bow at the end of the day, although he owes me big time (I’ll tell you why a little later on in the week. Stay tuned.)

Today I thought I’d mention one of the points I made early in the day, which is that one of the most important aspects of healthy play is that the stronger, faster individual self handcaps, or inhibits their speed and strength to match that of their partner. We humans, at least if we are polite ones, do this as a matter of course. What would you think of a mother who smashed a serve toward her seven-year old child who was just learning to play tennis, or a father who used all his strength when play-wrestling with his five year old?

Dogs do it too, as was illustrated in videos I showed of Lassie and Willie playing tug.  The first video was when Will was about 9 weeks old, and 12 year old Lassie not only plays tug with clear inhibition (she pulls back with less strength than she had, she shook her head from side to side with much less torque and speed than usual), but she moved the tug toy back toward Will’s mouth the few times she pulled it out of his mouth. The next video showed Will and Lassie playing tug just a few months ago. Will is two years old now, and so strong and fast I get a great workout playing tug with him myself. This time, at fourteen, Lassie is the weaker one. And yet, there’s Will, carefully pulling just hard enough to keep Lassie engaged in the game. He rarely shakes his head from side to side, and  he pulls just hard enough to make it a game,  even though he could rip it out of Lassie’s mouth in a micro second. It’s a lovely example of self handicapping (and why it makes me feel a little bit sentimental, I can’t say. There’s something so endearing about it….).

But here’s the challenge: self handicapping requires a lot of emotional control, and the irony about play is that part of its fun is that we can throw aside some of our inhibitions and lose a little bit of control. I suspect this is where a lot of dogs get into trouble. Playing, which often involves the same actions as fighting, can result in high arousal and a lack of inhibition… and spill over into aggression a bit too easily.  “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out” applies to dogs as well as people. Dogs need to learn to self regulate as they grow up, and I think we can  help them by teaching them games that involve learning patience and emotional control. For example, Will has learned to stay in a down-stay while I throw the ball for Lassie a few times, that’s just part of the game. He’s learned that being patient and polite leads to more play for him, and so is used to getting reved up, but calming himself down at a moment’s notice when asked.

I’m also a believer that it is good to interrupt dog play when it becomes a bit too energetic, especially when dogs are young, and especially when they don’t live together. There’s nothing wrong with helping dogs to learn to calm themselves, just as we do young children. (One of the tapes I played at the conference included the voices of a child and parent watching prairie dogs at the zoo. The adult’s voice, even when excited, stayed measured, but the child’s voice was a prime example of ‘emotional arousal.’ It was adorable really… “AH! There are NINE!!!!!! prairie dogs” the child shrieked when yet one more prairie dog came out of the burrow. His voice was so excited you could feel the arousal, and catch some of it yourself. After the child literally shrieked “NINE” at the top of his lungs, his good parents quietly said “Shhhhh..,” teaching the child to monitor his arousal level in certain situations. I think we owe the same to dogs, without being too protective or hovering over them.

I like what Pia Silvani and trainers at St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center do in puppy class: if it looks as if one puppy is getting out of control or starting to bully another, they calmly and gently take the potential offender by the collar and separate the pups. If the other one comes back for more, then it’s great to let them begin playing again.  If not, then it’s time to end the play session between those two pups. As we all know… it’s only really play if both participants are enjoying themselves.

Here’s a lovely play bow for you, sent to me by a super photographer…