Dog Play
How to Recognize Good Dog Play
Have two or more dogs? Take your dog to the dog park or to friends' houses to play? These helpful resources will help you determine if the play is good. We look for things like meta signals, activity shifts, role reversals and self-handicapping. If you're not sure that both dogs are enjoying the play, do a consent test and let the dogs tell you! Check out videos for characteristics of good dog play and consent tests below.
Fellow Academy graduate, Jane Sigsworth, put together these very informative and important to watch videos to help others recognize good and not-so-good dog play.
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Warning
Beware of predatory drift with dog play - especially new dogs with a significant size difference (one dog little and another big) or in a situation where multiple dogs play. Read more below in an excerpt from Fight! by Jean Donaldson.
