Do you play with your dogs?

[Christmascinnamoncookie]

I play lots with mine. Bear likes to rough house, well, not so much these days. He’s very mouthy.

Mitch honks and brings toys and will chase a ball, he’s not massively playful.

Goose gets overexcited if I pay him over the top attention and throws himself dramatically to the floor, squeaking like a rusty wheel. He likes to nip if you roughhouse and is very playful. He brings toys to play with me and gets annoyed if Mitch interferes! He’s a scream.

(We are unlikely to have children in the house so I don’t mind about the mouthing)

 

[MuddyMonster]

Yes. I have little choice ?

 

[PapaverFollis]

I play with Oscar, wrestly belly rubs type play, usually resulting in a mad half hour...

Hugo is faaaaaar too sensible but loves a game of tug and playing with toys.

Henry is a bit too potentially nippy for me to want to properly rough house (I think if you haven't had them as a puppy it's more tricky too) and despite coming with a box of random toys (so its not like he wasnt ever given toys in his previous life) he doesn't seem to have any desire to tug or fetch. He likes his face smooched and his front paws waggled though. ?

 

[meleeka]

One of mine likes a wrestle, but only with my OH. She sometimes plays tug but has to be in the right mood. She doesn’t do balls and looks as though you’ve lost your mind to even suggest it.

The other one likes balls, but her favourite thing currently is the horses snack ball which is mostly a solitary game it seems.

 

[AmyMay]

Daisy loves an evening play, usually with my OH as I simply don’t pass muster in that department. She likes ‘squeeky’ which gets ragged about, ‘tuggy’ (tug of war), and her ball.

Jack - no. We’ve tried and tried, but he just looks at you like you’re mad ?

 

[windand rain]

Old girl found her favourite toy the other day it has taken 5 years off her she is loving playing and fetching but we have to be careful as she gets overtired

 

[Moobli]

Mine love to play with me, especially when balls and tugging are on the menu.

 

[FestiveG]

We have to play ball with the black lab, she likes to have two rounders balls, one in her mouth and football with another one? yellow lab will play with a ball for a while but gets bored. I don't play wrestling games any more with dogs, learnt that it was not a good idea. The rotters loved to play tug and the first rotters idea of heaven was if you spun her round you, with her holding a rope and her lifting her feet off the floor?

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

We play with balls with ours. The black Lab likes to play football while carrying another ball in her mouth, she is very good at dribbling and an excellent goalie! The yellow one enjoys chasing a ball and choosing who she wants to throw it next, although she easily gets distracted and drops the ball to sniff. That gives us a good opportunity to follow directions to retrieve!
They play tug together, they don't need us for that!

Eta, oops cross-posted!

 

[EllenJay]

One of mine loves to play, throw games and pulling games. The other one doesn’t play at all

 

[SilverLinings]

I sadly lot my last dog a year ago, but I have my mum's dog to stay on a regular basis when she goes away. All of them (cocker spaniels mostly from working lines) have loved to play, and they have all been obsessed with balls and playing fetch. They have liked tug-of-war (although I don't pull that hard, more wiggle the toy about) to varying degrees, and my last one enjoyed playing (as opposed to a training session) with the agility kit in the garden. My last dog (bitch) was so keen to please and spend time with me that she appeared to enjoy most things we did together and think they were fun, but her most favorite play activity ever was a game of fetch that required swimming.

I tend to do three types of walk in rough rotation; relaxed sniffing walks where the dog can mooch about and choose the route, training walks where we work on a skill, and 'play' walks where we take a ball or frisbee, or go swimming.

I really enjoy playing with the dogs and working out what their favorite game is, and it also works as a good reward and decompression after some more intense training. I think it's sad when owners never play with their dogs (excluding owners of dogs who don't like it, or dogs who never learnt to play in the home they grew up in so are confused when rehomed with an owner who tries to play).

 

[poiuytrewq]

Yes! I love playing with them, I actually managed to give my knees carpet burns playing with Cec a few weeks ago ?
Spud lab gets a bit too rough but stops instantly when I say.
I was so pleased with Cecil yesterday when we were playing and I said stop and he did and then said sit and he bloody did. ??

 

[TheOldTrout]

Oh yes, I throw his ball or a squeaky for him to chase, he plays tug of war, sometimes we put a biscuit in an empty cardboard egg box and shake it to get his attention, then throw it and he chases the box, then trashes it to get the biscuit.

 

[Christmascinnamoncookie]

My last dog (bitch) was so keen to please and spend time with me that she appeared to enjoy most things we did together and think they were fun, but her most favorite play activity ever was a game of fetch that required swimming.

Zak and Bear’s absolute favourite thing ever, although Zak would cheat by running along the bank so would always win. We had to have a ball in reserve for poor Bear. ? Goose just steals the ball from Bear in the water and Bear lets him!

 

[SilverLinings]

Running along the bank was an excellent ploy of Zak's, I'm impressed! I used to have to get quite strict about my bitch swimming in colder weather as she found it so enjoyable/mesmerising that she wouldn't come out until she was really cold if you left it up to her. I eventually stopped letting her go in for more than a paddle when it was cold in the winter, even though it was only a two minute walk home, as she struggled to keep weight on when she was elderly. She didn't have great conformation and I'm convinced that part of the reason she lived to nearly 15 (and remained sound) was her regular self-imposed hydrotherapy sessions. If you weren't playing fetch then she would just swim around with a blissful look on her face

 

[Clodagh]

I play but reading above posts probably not how you all call play! Never wrestle, rough house or tug anything. We play training games like hide the dirty sock.
Sounds boring but they love it. Pen and T have a soft toy each that live upstairs, away from anyone destructive, and we play hide and seek with them.
They think all training is play, anyway, and now I do sound really dull ?

 

[poiuytrewq]

I play but reading above posts probably not how you all call play! Never wrestle, rough house or tug anything. We play training games like hide the dirty sock.
Sounds boring but they love it. Pen and T have a soft toy each that live upstairs, away from anyone destructive, and we play hide and seek with them.
They think all training is play, anyway, and now I do sound really dull ?

I *think we do training play aswell. I do lots of “touch” with Cecil. He has to touch my right hand to get a treat from the left. It always takes a minutes to refresh but then I can run round with him nose touching my hand. I’ve no clue why that’s good but we learned it at puppy school as a recall!
He also likes to find things.

 

[Clodagh]

After they are fed at 4pm I usually go and have a shower. T nags me until I go and take my socks off, and then nags me until I hide them.
I should start a thread ‘is your life not your own?’

 

[SilverLinings]

I play but reading above posts probably not how you all call play! Never wrestle, rough house or tug anything. We play training games like hide the dirty sock.
Sounds boring but they love it. Pen and T have a soft toy each that live upstairs, away from anyone destructive, and we play hide and seek with them.
They think all training is play, anyway, and now I do sound really dull ?

I had to stop that after I discovered a dog I had played it with had helped herself to socks outside the game and swallowed the whole pair (I'll leave you to imagine how I discovered that!). I still play hide and seek with my mum's dog using her favourite ball (the dog's favourite, not my mother's) and she loves it. I don't think you need to play tug or wrestle for it to be fun play.

 

[PurBee]

My dog has a playful happy nature…she’s always smiling - but its more like she loves running alongside me play, and twirling around me. I get to throw her sticks she finds, but it’s just the once, she then grabs it, lays down and has a chew and roll. She prefer playing tug with sticks and winning the game.
The balls and throw toys she’s gone and buried in the forest are numerous so i stopped buying them, as she prefer sticks and stones. She can carry stupidly large stones too….the only dog i’ve known to choose stones as a carry toy. (theyre too big for her to swallow them) We’re often tripping over them in the house. I can throw a stone and she’ll fetch it for another throw, and again, but not any other throw toy…i’ve no idea why!

 

[poiuytrewq]

After they are fed at 4pm I usually go and have a shower. T nags me until I go and take my socks off, and then nags me until I hide them.
I should start a thread ‘is your life not your own?’

Brilliant ?

 

[Christmascinnamoncookie]

Running along the bank was an excellent ploy of Zak's, I'm impressed! I used to have to get quite strict about my bitch swimming in colder weather as she found it so enjoyable/mesmerising that she wouldn't come out until she was really cold if you left it up to her. I eventually stopped letting her go in for more than a paddle when it was cold in the winter, even though it was only a two minute walk home, as she struggled to keep weight on when she was elderly. She didn't have great conformation and I'm convinced that part of the reason she lived to nearly 15 (and remained sound) was her regular self-imposed hydrotherapy sessions. If you weren't playing fetch then she would just swim around with a blissful look on her face

Zak was far too clever for a dog: he overthought everything.

I play but reading above posts probably not how you all call play! Never wrestle, rough house or tug anything. We play training games like hide the dirty sock.
Sounds boring but they love it. Pen and T have a soft toy each that live upstairs, away from anyone destructive, and we play hide and seek with them.
They think all training is play, anyway, and now I do sound really dull ?

I think gundogs aren’t supposed to play tug! They certainly shouldn’t squeak as they swim to the dummy! And stealing another dog’s retrieve is of course very poor etiquette, but then we send them all at once because they’re not actually gundogs. I think we’ve pretty much decided not to do any gundog style training with them, I’m hoping they won’t need the discipline like Zak did. Goose is a natural for retrieving, particularly if Bear is in view. ?

 

[CorvusCorax]

Does anyone not??

 

[pistolpete]

All the time. She loves to play fetch indoors. Loves to rough and tumble. Loves to graunge about on the sofa! One day she may grow up but I’m not holding my breath!

 

[Chiffy]

Reading through this thread, I thought Oh dear! I don’t do that! But then I got to Clodagh and that’s much more my type of thing.
I have never wrestled with any dog and never ever play tug. I like my dogs to give up gently what they are holding.
We play retrieve or hide and seek either indoors or outside. I don’t compete at agility but have some jumps, weave poles and a tunnel and we play with them very informally for fun. They can even do it together, racing through the tunnel or over the jumps. Brilliant fun when the granddaughters are here.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

I play but reading above posts probably not how you all call play! Never wrestle, rough house or tug anything. We play training games like hide the dirty sock.
Sounds boring but they love it. Pen and T have a soft toy each that live upstairs, away from anyone destructive, and we play hide and seek with them.
They think all training is play, anyway, and now I do sound really dull ?

I learned early on with my first own (rather than family) Labs not to encourage rough-housing. I had to stop it because my arms got so scratched.
Our first Rott did enjoy playing tug with people but we didn't encourage the pair that we got later, they were much bigger dogs anyway and we wanted them to give up anything that they had in their mouths when we wanted it, not to play tug with a slipper or similar.
The Labs we have now love swimming but we have to go in the car to take them to either the river or the sea. In fact every Lab we have ever had has loved water and one of the funniest sights ever was the 2 JRTs swimming in the sea, one behind the other while everyone else was paddling.
I haven't swum with dogs since I was a teenager and one of the Labs we had then decided that she needed a rest, so climbed onto my back. It's a wonder we didn't both drown!

 

[Moobli]

The sheepdogs play together rather than with us. They’ll rough house and chase each other. As pups I do play a little ball (rolled along the ground, not thrown) with the ones who are keen, but don’t overdo it as it can become an obsession with the collies.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

The sheepdogs play together rather than with us. They’ll rough house and chase each other. As pups I do play a little ball (rolled along the ground, not thrown) with the ones who are keen, but don’t overdo it as it can become an obsession with the collies.

That's the beauty of having more than one dog - they play together, keep each other entertained and fit.

 

[Moobli]

That's the beauty of having more than one dog - they play together, keep each other entertained and fit.

And gives them much needed down time from a busy, often pressurised job.

 

[AmyMay]

The sheepdogs play together rather than with us. They’ll rough house and chase each other. As pups I do play a little ball (rolled along the ground, not thrown) with the ones who are keen, but don’t overdo it as it can become an obsession with the collies.

Whilst Jack doesn’t play with us he absolutely loves rough housing with his mate. It gives me so much pleasure seeing them play together.