I have just started as a volunteer instructor at my local dog club, taking a class working towards the KC silver good citizens award. For this, one exercise is to play with your dog and I need to know how to help someone do this with her mixed-breed terrier. He's a four year-old rescue and the owner has had him about 9 months. He's a lovely little dog, friendly with people and other dogs (but not over-the-top), he walks nicely on a loose lead, has a good recall and stay and he looks relaxed and happy ,not frightened. But he doesn't want to play. In the great scheme of things this doesn't really matter, but if he's going to pass silver I need to find a way to help his owner get him interested in playing. Last term, when I was shadowing another trainer, I was able to get a much bigger dog interested in tug, when his owners said he wouldn't play, by squealing and being much more exciting with the toy, but this didn't work for the little terrier. He doesn't have to play with a toy - but what other sort of play could we do? (Play fighting is not allowed and neither is food - so we can't do a food hunt) Any suggestions please?
Hi Joy, in my training class I have a show line Golden, who to begin with had very little interest in retrieving. I did lots of playing with him (showing him the toy, shaking it, pretending it was of high value to me, encouraging him to take it, etc etc), and slowly but surely he gained more interest in dummies. Since this is a terrier you are dealing with, and they love tugging and chasing, I would get on the floor with him, and show him the toy under your legs, hiding it and bringing it back out again, as though it were a rabbit or something popping in and out of the ground!
When Ella was a puppy, we bought her a rope toy that she wasn't the slightest bit interested in. The OH and I decided to throw the rope to each other and play with it in front of Ella. Worked like a charm... She wanted to join the game very quickly.
I think you need to find out what the dog likes - I had to do this with Betsy because she was different to Charlie (Charlie will play with anything, in anyway). You can start with food even if you don't end up with food, because you can transfer the value of food to a toy. So just start with what the dog likes, rather than what you want to end up doing. What does the dog like? Chasing? Carrying? Food? What food? Cheese or meat? Just find out what floats that dog's boat. If the dog likes food, you can start playing with food. If the dog likes chasing but doesn't like toys, starting with chasing food (roll it, flick it, teach the dog to catch). You can tie the food onto something and get the dog to chase it, then try with a toy and reward for touching the toy, and so on. With a terrier, I'd try packing a toy rat with food and sticking it on the end of a whipit stick to chase (or one of those clam like throwing toys you can stuff with food). Then if you want to get rid of the food, decrease the food in the toy, and reward from elsewhere when the dog chases the toy. If the dog won't chase the toy, just start with 'squiggling' the toy so the dog has to catch his dinner (in the toy), and then move onto a larger chase. Toys are always secondary reinforcers, and there is always a transfer of value from play. You can transfer the value from food or another primary reinforcer just the same.
Thank you both, Emily and JulieT. When I see them next I'll talk to the owner and see which ideas she feels would be good to try. I'm not usually all that keen on terriers but he's a lovely laid-back little chap.
This is a big clue and could mean that he will be a tough nut to crack on the playing thing. Some dogs don't need to be taught to play, but some dogs do. If they weren't played with as puppies and young dogs - which can be quite common in a rescue situation - they may simply have no idea what "play" is or why they should do it. A lot of dogs that come through rescue and are past the puppy stage don't play. Whether you can teach that to them as an adult is another question - a lot of my fellow volunteers thought you couldn't but for me the jury's still out. I had one foster who was with me for nearly two months until one day she finally looked at Brogan running around with a tug toy in he mouth like a goober and took out after him. Ugh, I just about burst into tears that she finally "got it". Oh, and after that, she was a serious play-monster. But that may help you better understand the little guy and why he's looking at you like, "Huh? Whaddya want from me??"
I think you have to be really careful not to stress the dog. Too much obvious encouragement can put an awful lot of pressure on them, because they know you want something from them, but they're not sure what. I had to teach W&S to play tug, because they didn't get it. when I say "had to", I mean I wanted to, but in order to do that, they had to be taught how. I just approached it like any other training scenario, getting the behaviours I wanted (holding the rope in the mouth, continuing to hold it when pressure was applied, pulling back, initiating that pull etc), and heavily reinforcing every step of the way with a lot of energy, so that they could understand the "game" and, with enough reinforcement, it became rewarding in its own right.
Yes, I think you're right - and especially as it's not an essential behaviour (except in terms of the test.) There won't be time in a class to spend a long time on this with him, so all I can really do is make suggestions to his owner for her to try at home - which would be a lower stress place anyway. His owner is experienced with dogs but is just a bit stumped as I am about how to get him to play.
I have this book by Denise Fenzi: http://www.positiveanimalsolutions....ok_3_Play_by_Fenzi_and_Jones_p/dogsports3.htm For me, it didn't bring an awful lot to the party, because I'd already learnt most of it through working with my own dogs, but it might be interesting for someone who is new to trying to teach an older dog to play?
