Are we having fun yet?
(Playing vs training - why we believe there should be no difference!)
I’ve said it before, I’ll likely say it again.
Dog training can be boring. Why?
Well, it’s a chore and, like most chores, it’s not particularly rewarding. Sure, training the puppy was fun but, like most new things, the shine comes off pretty fast and soon we find other ways to fill our time.
Does it matter though? You graduated puppy class with flying colours, surely your family pooch is now “trained for life”?
Well, no. Sorry to be the one to tell you but, just as you finish puppy school, adolescence kicks in and and your little fluffy darling vanishes - pouf! - to be rapidly replaced by an insane velociraptor with zero attention span and a demon glint in the eye, which you can only glimpse as your hairy used-to-be-good friend disappears over the horizon in search of something less boring to do than hanging out with the pawrents.
(Yes, I’ve been there. Can you tell?) You need to up your game.
PLAY
Domestic dogs are neotenized or, in plain English, they never really grow up (think a hirsute Peter Pan.)
The rigours of surviving in the wild are so far removed from their days of blissful comfort (lying around on an overstuffed pillow, being fed delicious freshly-prepared food, taking a few photos for the ‘gram before heading out for a social walk with friends, followed by a quick puppacino at their favourite cafe - not exactly the knife-edge existence of a wild wolf is it?) that they retain a childlike quality throughout life. Like humans, wolves (mostly) stop playing when they reach adulthood because - like us - they have to contend with the finer points of survival, not just of themselves but of their entire species.
But not your never-grown-up dog, your little Peter Pan-a-like just wants to have fun.
In fact, if they’re not eating or sleeping they probably want to be playing. Sadly, somewhere between early childhood and now, the unadulterated joy of play disappears for most of us (probably around when ‘play’ starts to equate with competition and becomes all about winners and losers rather than enjoying ourselves). It’s hard to play with our dogs when we’ve forgotten what having fun looks like, but why does it matter?
The purpose of play
Well, obviously it’s enjoyable or our dogs wouldn’t do it, but play is about so much more than ‘just’ having fun.
Play builds bonds, it tests and strengthens relationships, improves social functioning and creates self-regulation and self-discipline abilities. Wow! Now that sounds like a useful kind of tool to have on the journey of turning your dog into one of the Greatest Dogs on Earth.
Any dog trainer worth their salt will advise you to use play to help train your dog, but at the Circus we take things one step further. We make the WHOLE TRAINING EXPERIENCE about play so it’s not just fun for your pooch, it’s fun for you too. We take the pressure off and instead of ‘you must’, we focus our training on ‘would you like to?’. We are all about trying, having-a-go and, most importantly of all, about CHOICE. If your dog doesn’t want to do something, we’ll find an alternative that they are happy to try. Same goes for you. We value and appreciate the contribution and effort of all our participants, whether canine or human, and are huge fans of celebrating the small wins. Because little changes lead to great big achievements as, without pressure or coercion, a willingness to experiment develops and confidence is built.
And we can think of no better way to build the kind of relationship to last you both a lifetime.
