Play Nice!

Chima is by far the most playful dog in our family but due to her size and her intensity, she often scares the crap out of the other dogs. It's sad because she wants to play so bad, but typically this is how a play session goes: 1) Chima initiates play. 2) other dog accepts and bitey face/wrestling begins. 3) Chima gets excited and barks intensely in the dog's face pushing them into a corner. 4) Game over.

That scenario plays out for the most part in less than 15 seconds. Often it ends in a fight, me yelling and both dogs freaked out. We have been in this rut for a long time so recently I decided I needed to change things up so that Chima had a chance to be successful and get some play time. Since Serra wants to play with Chima still and hasn't been scarred by Chima's attempts I decided to work with her and Chima this week before she heads to her adoptive home.

Next stop: Lucha libre?!:  El Perro Loco vs La Cobra de Rosa

The problem is that Chima gets overstimulated so quickly that the play turns into a fight. How I started working on this is I let the play get initiated, let each girl get a bitey face move in and then I created a distraction so they back off each other and look at me. They then get that "break" reinforced with treats and/or praise and then when they discover I'm not that interesting they go back to playing. I keep at this, always monitoring play so that I don't give Chima the chance of driving herself into a frenzied barking fit. You can see an example of this in the video below. Slowly but surely the length of play lengthens before I step in and distract the girls into taking a break. And then miraculously over the course of a morning Chima starts to give herself breaks. Better yet, she will even pause when Serra steps back to take a breather and respect Serra's need for a break.

Note the tennis ball fuzz hanging stuck in Chima's mouth

As we have new fosters who are willing and able to play with Chima, we'll keep practicing this. The bad news is that she's practiced the intense level of play for a long time so that's a lot of momentum to overcome. However, the longer we practice successful play with built in breaks, the more she will be reinforced by this type of play. Previously, the play always ended in a pretty overwhelming, way that was no fun. But now she gets reinforced by more play, and lots of praise and occasionally treats when breaks are inserted into the play. That is a lot more fun and worth doing more of. And that is how we will make that behavior worth continuing.

Serra attempts the controversial butt pin

It's easy for us humans to get stuck in a pattern of behavior with our dogs - yelling and reacting to something that frustrates us. But the reality is that the behavior is not going to change if we, as the adult guardian, don't step in and provide some positive guidance to get things on the right track. For Chima and I, all it took to get that change started after a year of frustration was one morning of me consistently paying attention. And the payoff for that is reinforcing to me as well as Chima. Because it sure is tough not to feel happy as I watch her wiggle and flop herself around on the floor, tail wagging madly and Chewbacca sounding noises coming deep from her throat.

And now just for fun, watch how Sal enjoys playing by herself, completely oblivious to the mayhem whirling about her as she focuses on her favorite pasttime: toy destruction.

Just chewing on her ball

Serra and Chima roll closer but Sal is oblivious

They now wrestle over the top of her and she is still unphased

The result of such concentration? Successful tennis ball destruction and a carpet covered with yellow fuzz