IMPORTANCE OF PLAY IN DOGS

PLAY IN CANINES

Today’s adult pet dogs have less opportunities to play independently with other dogs after early puppy socialisation and this species-species ‘play/interaction’ deficit leads to pet dogs unable to maintain the ability to socialise properly to avoid possible confrontation.  

All our dog training classes support safe and ethical off lead interaction with known individuals.

All owners will be shown how to enjoy this normal social interaction and given the skills to intervene if the play seems over threshold.
Society has changed dramatically over the last 50 years with families becoming more fragmented geographically to pursue work with most members working long hours. In addition, the introduction of stricter health and safety guidelines with Councils implementing restrictions on dog use in public areas has made exercising the pet dog more difficult. This has led to dogs having to spend large amounts of time away from their family in day care set-ups or home alone as a compromise to meet the dog’s needs. It was thought that this lack of dog-dog interaction could be compensated by owner-dog play and that pet dogs did not need to interact with their own kind to grow up into a well-adjusted pup, however, it has been seen that many owners do not have the time or inclination to spend long periods of time in social play with their dogs and play with their own kind offers other necessary social development which owners might not be able to meet.

The inability to interact with their own kind is now seen as having physical and behavioural consequences in some dogs. Our society has become less tolerant to dog’s socialising freely and this has had a direct influence on dog’s becoming unmanageable and unable to handle day-to-day interactions with unfamiliar dogs. As a nation, the unmanageability of dogs is addressed by an increase in demand of dog training opportunities and animal behaviourist consultation. However, Bekoff (1997) believes that it is the lack of social opportunity that makes dogs unmanageable and I support this view wholeheartedly. Over the last 50 years I have seen a dramatic difference in manic behaviour with dogs becoming unmanageable.    Increased exercise opportunities to include safe and normal play with other dogs makes a sizeable difference into how people can safely exercise them but bringing the dogs back under threshold takes time and education.

In addition, some owners complain that they haven’t the ability to recognise the difference between good play and bad encounters and modern dogs have difficulty in following set boundaries such as general obedience. Claire’s train and play schemes enable dog owners to instigate correct socialisation throughout their dog’s life rather than just during puppyhood. This will hopefully give pet dogs the opportunities to have normal social species-species interaction as well as human-species interaction throughout its life. Play is motivational for dogs because it is fun to interact with their own kind and gives them the social experience to understand relationships with each other and learn the skills to deter conflict. I believe that it is our moral and ethical duty to put in structures in place to ensure our pet dogs social needs are maintained throughout the dog’s life.  

It is now common knowledge that correct breeding, upbringing and husbandry methods that allows continued opportunities for individuals to have free play with each other has a direct correlation on their ability to remain social and calm in most situations with other dogs. Without these social opportunities and freedom to interact species-species the pet dog’s development both physically and behaviourally will be curtailed.  

This continued socialisation is important and creates individuals who neither isolate themselves or become over-energetic in interactions and the ability to temper their emotions to dispel confrontation is learnt during this socialisation. Historic research show that feral dogs and the wolf (Canis lupis) as the dog’s forefather spent much time in play to establish relationships. In child-play it is seen as an imperative stage in the child’s development where they gain cognitive abilities, learn their limitations and strengths and a sense of self which leads to them nurturing positive relationships by developing balance and manners and gaining social skills that deflect confrontation and it is the same in all social animals.  

However, the ability to play naturally involves rough housing which is now often viewed by modern society as dangerous and compromising health and safety standards in public places.   By giving owners the skills to see what good and bad play looks like they enjoy seeing their own dogs play with others. This can be initially started with known dogs and as the dog learns more good social behaviour it will choose to interact or otherwise with strangers.  As the dogs social repertoire grows you will see that they enjoy the opportunity to play with each other as the interaction is significantly different to what owner play can mimic as the energy involved is high (who can run around a field three times and then swim across a lake – I know I can’t).  

In our modern world we are seeing that keeping our dogs away from playing with their own kind is making them socially inept  and therefore when we take them on holiday or on the beach,  the experience can be over-threshold and worrying.  

In addition, the media has made the average dog owner believe that normal behaviours such as ‘growling’ at a dog that has rudely jumped upon another is to be seen as an aggressive approach rather than a dog’s right to curtail another animal’s unsatisfactory behaviour. This can lead to dogs learning to suppress their emotions due to owner’s unskilled direction and other dogs having little or no social boundaries which is highly dangerous situation for owners.  I believe that health and safety directives and guidelines on human-dog play are being misinterpreted which is leading to isolation of our pet dogs.    

Much research has now been undertaken to show that correct and normal socialisation is vital in puppies to enable them to gain the correct cognitive and physical development. However, there is more research concluding that the socialisation gained as puppies needs to be continued throughout the adult dog’s life, as in humans, to remain a balanced individual that can interact with each other normally. 

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