Work at Play

MUMBAI MIRROR | BANGALORE MIRROR | AHMEDABAD MIRROR

Home Pune Entertainment Columns News Sports Photos Cricbuzz Travel All

Cover Story Crime Civic Others Campus

Home Pune Cover Story WORK AT PLAY

By MITALI PAREKH | Feb 11, 2013, 10.31 AM IST Engrave this into your busy schedule right now — playtime with pooch. A dog without fun in his or her life is as dull as Jack. Without natural activities such as hunting, socialising and mating rituals, a dog has no place to expend its energy. Pent-up energy leads to destructive behaviour, anxiety and obesity.

And no substitutes will do. It has to be you; not the walker or the household help. “Dogs are creatures of movement,” according to canine behaviourist Manoor Sachdev, “An obese dog shows the same symptoms as an obese human — loss of interest in life, health complications and pressure on joints.” What kind of games can you play? Consider the pooch’s breed, personality and preferences.

Try a few things, and see what excites it the most. Retrievers love to fetch and swim. Hounds were built to track but not to fetch. Ask a behaviourist who has experience in devising games for help. Together, you can figure out what your dog likes, and show to stimulate it. Basset hound Phoebe’s passion is football. A game of footie with the neighbourhood kids gets her waddling down at a speed you wouldn’t expect of a stuffed sausage.

One of the key things to remember is that you should initiate play time and stop it when it gets aggressive. “You have to balance the food reward,” says Manoor, “such that they play to gain your affection.

Affection is the best reward.” Like with all children, the ideal situation is when dogs play because they enjoy it and not for food. “Tug of war is a very wrong game to play as it encourages aggression. If you must play, never pull from side to side,” says Manoor, “as that mimics the motions a dog makes to kill the prey. Tug up and down.” Try out some of these games.

Retrieve: Not just Labradors and Golden Retrievers, even Indian Pariahs and German Shepherds love to bring you things. The tricky part is getting them to drop it. Never pull or pry the toy out of its mouth. That only makes it insecure.

You want to send home the message that unless they drop the toy, you can’t play anymore. Wait until they drop it themselves (praise generously and immediately) or throw another toy and repeat the cycle until they get the point. If it tries to cram more than one toy into the mouth, it’s just bonus hilarity.

Agility: Thinking dogs such as Pariahs, German Shepherds and Beagles enjoy negotiating hurdles. Construct a track using bolsters, chairs, sofas. The aim is to guide the dog to jump over bolsters, weave around chairs, crawl under tables to get to you. Guide and motivate them through it a few times till they do it on their own. Tracking: A dog with a keen sense of smell will like this.

Get three identical bowls, and hide a piece of cheese under one. Shuffle them about and encourage the dog to “paw” the bowl which has the cheese. Slowly increase the distance between the bowls. You can even hide a toy and encourage the pet to seek it out, or hide yourself.