PLAY with your dog

I know the topic of the month is "train your dog", but I really feel that it should be "build a better relationship with your dog".. after that- everything else comes a little easier. There have been several books printed about the importance of playing with your dog: Pat Miller's "Play With Your Dog", Patricia McConnell's "Play Together, Stay Together" and many, many books on games you can play with your dog.
Never underestimate the importance of having fun with your dog! Playing together is a powerful thing, it can help with training (use as a reinforcer), it can help with a shy or fearful dog (build confidence) or help with behavior modification (can use to help teach 'impulse control').
When I took the Level One trainer academy with Pat Miller at Peaceable Paws http://www.peaceablepaws.com , we had to work for 1 week with a shelter dog on training basic behaviors like sit, down, come, wait, leave it, give, and stand. Usually, academy dogs for level 1 are dogs from the shelter who can benefit from some good manners training- but the shelter tries to pick dogs who don't have behavioral issues (of course, it happens but that isn't the goal of a level 1 academy). I ended up working with an American Bulldog named Bay-Bay who was painfully shy and very fearful. Her littermate Tolken was also an academy dog and ended up not really being able to participate due to his fearfulness. I had the most delicious treats (cheese, chicken, livewurst, baby food), and Bay Bay would do the behaviors with these as rewards- but what I REALLY felt built our relationship was the play. Every morning we would hike on Peaceable Paws 88 acre gorgeous property, and Bay Bay was very worried about lots of things- leaves falling, sounds, smells, sudden movements from tree branches. On the second day, I brought some toys with me to see if she would play with them. I had a fuzzy felt ball, and a long rope toy with a tennis ball on the end of it. At first she was worried about the toys, but I soon figured out that if I drug the rope on the ground and wiggled it- she would pounce on it and grab it. Sometimes when we were supposed to be working on new behaviors- I would go out to a field and just play with her. It wasn't long before she was doing the new behaviors- despite her fear, and she certainly had more confidence and trust in me!
The "exam" consists of bringing your dog in front of everyone in the training center and demonstrating where you are with teaching the new behaviors. Bay-Bay did great! While the week long history of being rewarded for offering behaviors helped our relationship, I really feel that the play is what made her more willing to try new things and trust me. Some of my classmates were amazed at how well she did, and commented on how good I did training her-but I have to say I consider myself only a good trainer (not great)- but I AM great at building a relationship with a dog and I have to say that play is what did that with Bay-Bay.
Bay-Bay did get adopted, and Pat offers a FREE good manners class to people who adopt academy dogs so I was hoping to see her again. Unfortunately, the owners didn't take advantage of this opportunity= but I hope they play with her every day!