Some Games I have dreamt up that dogs love to play.
In this modern world the work that Dogs used to do has pretty much vanished from our day to day business of living. I think even in Alaska they prefer motorised sleds these days. Hunting is a waning sport for many and varied reasons, not the least of which are that City Dwelling Modern Humanity is repulsed by the blood sport thing, and violence etc.
I heard some time back that people in UK are thinking of not buying NZ Lamb because we use dogs to chase the sheep and they think it is cruel.
Well food for thought because people still want to have dogs in their lives and dogs need purpose just as much as people do. Dogs are not soft woolly live toys, they are animals with a set of teeth and four legs, who just love to run and chase and grab things and tear them apart. No matter what humankind may have bred the dog to look like it is just as much an outdoor, nose to the ground, chase that bird kind of critter on the inside as it ever was.
Today I went to my friend Rob's farm to choose a piglet to give to my friends up Ward Road, Chris and Mick. They have a four year old pet wild pig, a female who has produced three lovely litters so far. She was brought home from the bush at about five weeks old and thinks she is a dog, sits on command, roams the farm with the sheep and altogether lives the life of Riley whoever he may be. I usually supply a boar piglet to them, it lives there until Miss Piggy is well and truly pregnant and then becomes a freezer item. It is a very good life for a pig really, though to you it may sound somewhat strange. Anyway that was not the story, but it does sort of follow. When I pulled up at Rob's farm and came in through the gate in my ute, I had to stop because the ute was being greeted by a tiny pet lamb. No way would she move so I got out and picked her up and put her in the front seat of the ute and boy did she stink, living with the piglets I think. I had Fae the Fat Fairy in her crate in the back seat and she went nuts because lambkins was bleating and trying to find a teat to suck and I was trying to turn around in a narrow driveway, also inhabited by mother pig and nine multicoloured well fed piglets. If this sounds like a lot of fun it wasn't at the time. However, Rob appeared and of course lambkins is the nominee for daughter Emma's foray into Calf Lamb and Chicken Day at Kaharoa School in about four weeks. Emma did the chicken rearing thing when she was in the little classes, has since done the Calf thing and done quite well and this year she will compete with a lamb. I think she has a good chance, there is no way this little thing won't follow, it is hooked on humanity so her training must be going well. So while Rob got the pig and piglets out of the driveway and back into the pigsty, I fed lambkins its bottle and it head butted and played and did that thing that little lambs do jumping off the ground in a gravity defying manner with all four feet. I couldn't resist making it a friend while I was there. I chose the boar piglet and came home. While all this may sound like a bunch of good natured rambling, which it is, it forced me to think about the number of species which humankind deliberately separates from its parent breed at a very young age so that they can do something with it. This is something that goes back to antiquity. It was part of survival for humanity and part of the very beginning of that change from hunting continually for food, to keeping a bit of food on the hoof around you for a rainy day, otherwise known as farming. I have not met many people who do not gravitate to baby things, want to hold them, play with them, cuddle them and love them.
Puppies fit into this whole thing, the removal of wild puppies from their nest, rearing them in human company - allowing them to play with the children and grow up with the other pet species in a village environment - these were the origins of our dogs as we know them. Whether those wild puppies came from wolves or another species of wild dogs is irrelevant, the dogs we have today are totally the product of human intervention.
So you would think when I ask my client owners, 'What Games do you play with your Puppy', they would have some thing to tell me. Mostly they haven't, they don't play or they play ball. Some play frisbie but hardly anyone does the game that makes the dog love you the best, the tug game. Many people tell me that they have been told that tugging is bad and makes dogs aggressive, well it doesn't in fact it is the opposite, it sucks up all the aggression and focus's the dogs emotional energies very well.
The best first puppy game at 8 weeks old is a very soft little toy pulled along the ground on a string for your puppy to jump on. This is not a ferocious game of tug it is just a little quiet movement game as puppy's eyes are not fully functional yet. I find that they love it. I usually go nuts and buy one of those satin pussy cat toys on elastic that look like a mouse but are a lurid pink or blue. It usually takes about two weeks for them to shred it. Ah but I only bring out the lurid pink mouse at play time, I do not leave it lying about to be destroyed lost or mutilated by one of the other dogs in a jealous huff about my playing with the 'new' dog. By the time we have demolished this toy it is time to move on to something bigger and I usually go for something almost the same size as the pup, A large teddy bear or something soft and substantial. Elsewhere I have written about second hand toys in Op shops preloved and ready for puppy ownership. This too goes on a string and at about 11weeks I introduce a large soft ball, that bits can't be chewed off, to go with the new toy. So I tow the toy and we get the first of a slight tug from dog, I do not tug in return, instead I bowl the ball along the ground, pup races after the ball then I pull the teddy on a string along the ground. Pup drops the ball and jumps on the teddy, then I stop pulling the teddy and bowl the ball. Pup goes to the new movement, sometimes they will early pick up the ball sometimes not, it isn't important for the Pup to do any particular behaviour, you will decide for yourselves how the game progresses and it will be as unique as you and your pup's game can be. After a few days, every time you bring out the toys your pup will be there looking, waiting, anticipating, the fun. Look him in the eye and say 'Good Boy' before you start. He will look to eye you to get you to play after that and soon it will be 'Good Boy Sit' before you play. Look at this - no training food has been used, it is all about the game.
Many people tell me 'He will play at home but not anywhere else' Why do you suppose that it? it is because the only place you play with him is in the lounge at 6,.30p.m. at night, so you start playing at 7a.m. in the morning outside on the deck, then you play at lunchtime on the weekend in the driveway, then you play in the park on lead. Then you go to a friends house and play there, then you introduce playing with distractions, start with very small distraction and build them up. What sort of distractions? noises, other people playing, other dogs quite close by. Dog needs to choose play and not bother about where they are or what the distraction is. This is his security blanket, this is what makes him feel safe. Never ever growl at your dog when you are playing and don't allow anyone else to butt in or make growly noises either, be careful not to scare your pup or young dog, the distractions cannot start before he is ready. So start the game a fair way away from the distraction and gradually move closer to the noise or whatever. How do you know when you have reached pup's threshhold of play that can be interrupted by distraction. Pup stops tugging or playing and looks for the distraction, don't carry on trying to get him to play, look around where he is looking and acknowledge the distraction and say 'good dog' - wait till he is a comfortable distance away before you start to play again.
Once your puppy chooses you over other dogs, other noises and any distraction - then you have the focus to move on to the games you want your dog to play.
