Playtime

     Now that the weather is really warming up here in the Northeast, the kids, the dog, and I have been enjoying being outside. My children are 5 and 2 3/4 years old and girls. They have a new obsession with picking dandelions and bringing them inside to put in vases. We try to spend some time outside every day, weather permitting of course.
     My dog is an English setter, male, 14 years old, but still quite spry for his age.  He is crazy about birds and squirrels, not interested at all in balls or fetch toys. I always have envied the lab , pit, or what-have-you mixed breed dogs that live to play fetch with a ball. You always have something to motivate the dog if you have a ball in your hand.  With a birdie dog like Gemi, balls were insignificant and therefore useless to me in training. 
     Inside the house he does play with plushy toys, simply because I taught him how years ago. When I first acquired this dog he did not play at all, he didn't know how.  So I set out to teach him by finding toys that looked like birds and squirrels (feathers and fur) and presenting them to him in an exciting way. Basically I acted like I thought the toy was *the best thing ever* and kept running away from him with it until I caught his interest and then we built on the play behavior from there. Now he will randomly grab a plushy and hold it in his mouth, try to kill it and shake it, and sometimes even toss it up in the air to himself.  

     Playtime for dogs is so important. It is a way for them to release pent up energy and enjoy themselves.  You should always provide your dog with a variety of different types of toys, but not too many at once.  I recommend having several out at once and then a basket of other toys in the closet.  That way you can switch out a few of the toys every week or so to keep your dog's interest.  It's amazing to see how excited they get about an old dingy toy when they haven't seen it in a few weeks. 

     Also if you get excited about something, chances are your dog will, too. Keep this in mind when you play together.  Something as boring as a stick becomes gold when you act excited and try to keep it away from your dog! Good luck trying to get him to forget about it after that! Playing equals bonding and bonding with your dog will enhance your relationship in so many ways, duh, right?  Take some time today to play with your dog, but end the play session while he still wants more, that way you are building up his interest in you. You want your dog to see you as fun and exciting, he needs to keep his eyes on you because he never knows when you will produce something amazing! Have fun playing with your dog and consider yourself lucky if you can get your dog to play with you outside, since there are many more distractions. Unfortunately, my dog still will not play with me when we are outside and I have given up trying to cajole him into it. If there are birds and squirrels, I cannot compete and that's okay.      
     My dog is an individual, even though he may not always take me up on my offers to play, he is always willing to follow my lead and he is never a real problem, anymore anyway!  Maybe I just cut him so much slack because he is fourteen years old now, as I said, and I know that our time together is winding down. Either way, I'm sure happy we have our time together, all of us as a family and I know that as long as we are together, fun will ensue.