Dog Agility Play Training New Haven CT

All puppies are born with innate play skills. This is often a surprise to people who say their dogs “don’t know how to play” or are not “toy motivated.” In fact, unless a puppy suffers from a neurological disorder, play is part of his hard wiring.
 
If you’ve ever watched a litter of 4- to 5-week-old puppies, you’ve seen this natural behavior develop. Puppies start interacting with each other very differently than before (when most of their behaviors were focused on eating and staying warm). Play develops motor skills, muscles, and social skills. For predators whose livelihood is based on the ability to track, chase, and kill, the role of play in survival is a critical one.

Our agility dogs don’t need to catch their own meals, but play is arguably the most important skill to develop in performance dogs. There are several reasons for this.

Social skills. Dogs that do not play with other dogs after they leave their litters often become reactive when they are around other dogs. Many also display inappropriate social skills, which can cause conflict when their behaviors alarm or annoy well-socialized dogs. Performance dogs especially benefit from early socialization with other dogs because they are surrounded by other dogs throughout their careers. Unfortunately, agility trainers commonly insist that agility dogs never play with other dogs because they believe they will choose to play with other dogs rather than with their handlers. Instead, this should be an issue that a...

Author: Terry Long

Copyright 2009 BowTie Inc.

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