Not all prompts will be suitable for all dog-human relationships. For example, some dogs may not feel safe playing, or they might have health issues limiting play. In addition, your surroundings need to be considered—play may not be safe on all surfaces (e.g., slippery surfaces, around other dogs who may get over-excited, etc.). Older dogs, dogs with health issues, and dogs who are uncomfortable with human touch or play may not enjoy some of these prompts. It is up to the participants to use their knowledge and understanding of their dogs to ensure safety.
Before beginning, please review these two websites, which outline common behaviours and expressions that dogs’ use when nervous and/or fearful:
If, at any point during the study, you or your dog are not enjoying the proposition, please do not continue.
[August 5th to October 13th]
Pay attention to your bodily movements and the movements of your dog during play. Who starts play? How do they do it?
Collaboration request: Write a story about a typical play excursion between you and your dog and any other (human or non-human) animals. Do not use real names unless you have consent from others to do so.
His favorite word is “play”. When he hears it, his ears perk taller and he cocks his head. He doesn’t care what came it is, play means “let’s have some interactive fun now”.
But that’s when I initiate play. When HE initiates play, it is usually a ball dropped into my lap. Then he’ll trot 10-15 feet away and stare. Should I ignore him, he’ll return, take the ball from my lap and make certain that his wet nose touches me when he drops it into my lap again. How could I ignore the wet nose? Lol. Then off he goes again, high-tail-trotting 10-15 feet away and waiting. If I’m not quick to throw, he’ll HUFF.
We also play at a little plastic kiddie pool. He initiates by standing and staring at it until someone notices. There are other games that he communicates to me in a similar fashion.
Typical play excursions with my dog begin in one of two ways. 1) After any walk, she initiates play by leaping into a play bow and huffing like an oinking pig. When I reciprocate by suddenly crouching down or saying “lets go!”, she zooms around the house thrashing her toys. 2) When I return home from work, I initiate play with her by patting her on the back while she lies on the couch. This always results in her flipping over onto her back, with all four feet in the air, and very gently play biting. Inevitably, she leaps off the couch and zooms around the house after a brief wrestle, trying to goad me into chasing her – which then leads back to scenario 1.
Sometimes my dog starts the play and sometimes I do. I play mind games with him in the house and he is usually the one who will ask me to play. He likes me to hide one of his toys and then he looks for it. He will initiate this by coming up to me and barking. I will ask him “What is it” and he will go to his toybox and choose a toy which he then expects me to hide so he can search for it. If I take him out into our backyard, I will initiate play by asking him where his ball is. He will search for it and then hope that I will play his favourite game which is me trying to catch him and take the ball away from him.
