Enhancing Bonding: Engaging Play Activities with Your Dog

I usually use food or life rewards as motivation for Mr. N. I’ve been slowly trying to use more toys as rewards (usually paired with food) and we’ve also been working on our personal play skills (play without toys or food). Denise Fenzi’s play class can’t get here soon enough. 

Apparently Mr. N has taken this lesson to heart. He woke me up from a nap to play “wrestle bitey face” and this is a dog that loves napping as much as I do! As Mr. N has a considerable size disadvantage, he uses his full body in play while I use one hand to bat him around.  Emphasis on the bitey face.  He also likes playing chase. We take turns being the chaser and chasee. There are differing opinions on whether chasing your dog in play will hamper their recall but Mr. N is so super velcro anyway that he will circle back and check in with me if I’m too far behind.  Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me! We will also occasionally play spider hand where I creep my hand on the floor and he chases it down.  What kind of personal play games do you play with your dog? Welcome to First Monday’s Positive Pet Training Blog Hop hosted by Cascadian Nomads, Tenacious Little Terrier and Rubicon Days. Please share your responsible pet owner positive pet training tips by linking a blog post or leaving a comment below.  Our theme for this month is reporting back on trying new training games and play. but any positive reinforcement training posts or comments are also always welcome. The Positive Pet Training Blog Hop goes all week long. Our next hop will begin  Tuesday, July 5th because of the holiday and continues for a week.