Why Play Isn’t Optional for Your Dog — It’s Essential

A Walk That Became a Challenge

Every morning, my dog and I take a walk. It took Daisy a long time to actually enjoy walking outside in suburbia. Originally from San Antonio Texas, Daisy’s transition to city life was a bit of a bumpy one. But, through consistency and structure, we have gotten to a point where we mostly enjoy going on walks. She’s learned to love sniffing her environment. She will roll around on the grass. However, every now and then, we will have a tough walk. Not because she’s reactive. Daisy is sensitive to garbage trucks, school buses, and heavy traffic. While these triggers provide great training opportunities, they also sometimes cause Daisy to shut down. I have to be very careful about how much stimulation I put on her plate at one time. One morning she did not want to go on her walk. I recalled that the morning before had been a tough one and I thought, how could I make this fun again for her? Memories are powerful stuff, and if you find yourself having to convince your dog that they ‘need’ to do something everyday, when their heart is not it in, we could be setting them up to hate that activity. Instead, I decided to change things up a bit. Instead of going out for a walk, we went to the yard, and played!

Urban Agility: Turning Everyday Objects Into Fun

Daisy is a very agile dog. While I do own an agility set, it’s not always set up. What I have taught Daisy to do is to climb my son’s jungle gym and then go down the slide! On this particular morning, with treats in my pocket, I decided to add on to this part of our urban agility course. After she did her business, with a treat in my hand, I pointed to a rock, and she jumped on it. From there we jumped onto a bench, then a wobbly chair, up the jungle gym, down the slide, up the steps, down the steps, and she came back to me, circled around, and sat down, devouring her well earned treat.

Finding the Play Your Dog Loves

Every dog plays differently, so it’s important to find out what your dog enjoys! If your dog loves to hunt down squirrels, then a productive play exercise for them would be utilizing a flirt pole! If your picks up everything in sight and (sometimes) brings the stuff back to you, then they would benefit from honing their fetch skills. If your dog loves a good back and forth game where strength and persistence are challenged, well then tug taught with a proper Out cue might just be the game for them. Daisy loves jumping and running. When I combine these natural inclinations with obstacle course style exercises, she lights up! We both have fun working together and I thoroughly enjoying seeing her true personality come out, laughing at her goofiness and admiring her grace and finesse.

Play Builds Trust, Skills, and Bonding

Playing with a dog opens up so many windows of opportunities to learn and grow. Playing offers challenges that both owner and dog need to work through together, to come out victorious. Whether fetch or tug or agility, you need both a human and a dog to make it work.
Play creates a working relationship! Proper play is fun, fair, and firm (rules of engagement clearly established). In a fast paced world largely based on rigid routine, it can be easy to let loose and have fun. But, the fun is where the magic happens. Where your dog sees you as something more than the rigid rule creator. To be someone they can also have fun with and depend on to help them complete a complicated task creates an unbreakable bond. There is so much you can learn about one another, through the art of playing.