We play dog training games every day. We have a website about training games. And on our dog training video channel, we post little clips of our games. About a week ago, we posted a short clip of Simon circling a couple of posts. He was happily zooming around, following Fran’s signals. It’s a little less than 10 seconds of video, showing a cute dog playing a cute game with his person.
We were rather stunned by a comment on the video: “Must you put your animals through all this. Can’t you just except (sic) them for who they are and love them. because they love us with no reservation.”
It never occurred to us that our dog training games would be viewed as something we force our dogs to do. Or that we don’t accept our dogs for exactly who they are. And not only appreciate their unconditional love, but return it in kind.
So why do we “put our animals through all this”? Exactly because we do love them. And we want them to live the biggest, best lives they possibly can.
Appreciate their abilities
Frankly, we think it’s weird that more people don’t play training games with their dogs. It’s such a joy to see them figure stuff out. The dogs are so proud, and happy when they do. If you watch our training games videos, you’ll see that when we’re at home, the dogs don’t even have a collar on. They’re not tethered, or leashed. If they didn’t want to do it, they could simply walk away.
And they have. Some days our dogs let us know they just don’t feel like it, even if we have their favorite treats in our hand. We’ll try a different game and see if they want to play. But if they don’t, that’s okay. There’s always another time or day. And sometimes we’ll be the ones who abandon a game, seeing our dog just not into it that day.
We take the lead from our dogs’ willingness to play with us in lots of situations. Tango, Fran’s Brussels Griffon, decided he was done playing competitive dog sports (Rally and Agility) a few years ago. Fran gave him an opportunity to change his mind, but he didn’t. So Tango, with many titles in both sports, retired from competition. He still, at 14 years old, enjoys playing training games at home. We never force our dogs to play with us.
Letting the dog take the lead
And sometimes we dive deeply into something that we didn’t really care much about, just because our dog loves it. That’s the case with Hope’s French Bulldog Torque and Rally Obedience. Torque absolutely adores it. So Hope loves it now, too. Because it’s all about the team.
Your dog teammate is capable of so much more than most people give them credit for. Dogs can learn hundreds of words, if you bother to teach them. It’s as simple as saying the word “ball” every time they bring you a ball. Or say “good down!” if you’re passing by and see your dog lying down. Just like talking to infants before they can speak, giving dogs the vocabulary empowers their understanding.
Happy dog, happy life
Dogs are happiest when they know what’s going on. They like schedules. They like rules. And they like really knowing “who’s a good boy/girl?” Playing training games lets them know that figuring stuff out and using their brains is a good thing.
If that commenter thinks for a single instant that our dogs are being forced into something, she’s not watching what’s right in front of her. We think having dogs enriches our lives. And playing training games is a gift we give each other to have fun with our dogs. Every single day.
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