Play is an essential part of being a dog. No one needs to create a dog that plays. It is already in them. Some dogs don’t play because they weren’t encouraged to do so; are not well; are old and don’t have it in them to engage any more; or they just don’t want to play with the one asking.
Most games are fun to play. Puppies like to wrestle with one another, and sometimes the adults join in. But all games have rules, and one rule is that you keep it a game.
Have you ever played a game with someone who didn’t play like it was a game? That’s because it wasn’t play anymore. That’s when people get angry, and the game is over.
The same is true with dogs. There are games, and there are games. The right games are social play for everyone involved. The wrong games are those that are forced on you.
You can’t force a dog to play. You can invite it, just like other dogs solicit play. Furthermore, you don’t want to encourage a dog to force play on you. That can escalate to something more than play. Some “play” isn’t play at all.
Here are some examples.
Years ago, I had a student with a big, male American Bulldog. He and his buddies thought it was funny to encourage his dog to go hump guests. Send the dog, the dog would jump up, hold on with both front legs, and go to work. Ha. Ha. Ha. Well, that wasn’t so fun when the dog started humping his parent’s dog next door, tying up with the other male (as in mating… look it up), and leaving that other dog bloody afterwards. It also wasn’t so funny because this student was now married, and his wife was near to the point of delivering. What would happen if that dog started humping that baby? It could be lethal.
That was a stupid game to play.
Here is another. A student adopted a dog from a shelter. A big dog. This dog had already learned to jump up and grab forearms with his teeth. He was almost as tall as the wife when up on her. He would push her back into a corner and gnaw on her arms. He would then get frustrated and even more intense when they tried to make him stop. The dog only picked on the wife, not the husband, and only when he wasn’t around. She was also afraid of the dog, which encouraged the dog even further, and she would cry and act weak as it built up, further encouraging the dog.
Someone did a stupid game with this dog, too.
Another stupid game. I saw this one the other day on the internet. The man (husband, brother, boyfriend…?) pretends to hit or grab the woman. The dog jumps up and stands in between them. He does it again, the dog stands up and “guards” her again. Why would you train a dog to do this with known people in the home? Ha. Ha. Ha. Higher status animals that live in social groups will break up conflicts in the group. This is a natural behavior. I saw this before with a different dog. In this case, the family had 4 teenage boys. When they would wrestle, their male German Shepherd would get upset as they rolled around on the floor. One day, the two older brothers pinned the younger brother to the floor. The dog went over, grabbed the calf of the youngest boy and started pulling hard on him, like a tug toy. Not shaking, just clamping on and pulling.
Great game, eh?
What about the one where the guys in the family thought it was funny to take their small fluffy dog, put it in a pillowcase, and play soccer with the dog by sliding it back and forth along the floor? That was fun until the dog started biting their feet for real.
Wasn’t that a fun game?
How about the teen friend that would come over to the house, think it was fun to do a stare down with the dog? Until the dog bit him hard and sent him to the ER? And then the parents of this teenager wanted a financial settlement, of a lot of money, for what their kid provoked. The homeowner didn’t realize her teenage son allowed his friend to do this while she was away from the house. But, she was now potentially liable.
Isn’t that a fun game?
There are good games you can play with dogs. There are lots of articles on that, so I don’t need to write all that up here. But there are also bad games. Don’t do the bad games. If bad games have been encouraged, you may have a serious training problem to address.
Plan accordingly.