Putting Playing to Purpose

If you have ever had an LBI (or perhaps you are one, yourself!), you already know how challenging it can be to bring up his (or your!) playdrive. We call them the 7 games, but my LBI doesn't always think of them like that. There are some days where he looks at anything that involves moving as the dreaded w word...work!

Yesterday started out like every other day. I let him loose in the arena to roll and investigate if any sources of food have shown up since the day before. He always has to fix the playground I set up for the day; yesterday he threw cones, rolled the barrels and moved the balls to where he thought they should go. Normally I move them back to be able to accomplish what I had in mind for the day, but since I have been focused on hearing out his opinion lately, I left them where he had put them and decided to work with that.

Our day started out slow with lots of incentive. Things like 'touch it' come into play when he lacks motivation and are a great way to get him going somewhere with a 'rest' at the end. After some playing with the cones and a pole he started to look a little more alive. We moved down to the other end of the arena where he had placed the barrel and balls. He had them set up like this:

As always, I was trying to be creative in order to engage that smart brain of his. He had actually choosen a very interesting way to set things up and made it out to be a perfect playground! He could figure 8 around the red ball and green ball, around the red ball and barrel, squeeze or yo-yo between the barrel and green ball, change direction around the red ball or between the barrel and green ball, touch it, and so on...the possibilities were endless!

As we started the first thing I noticed were the questions! No longer did he just go up to the red ball and push it, he asked "What should we do now with the ball?". Coming from an LBI who always wants to do things his way, this was astonishing! Not only was he asking questions, he was having a great time! We were playing. He started out at a walk with a grumpy face and before I knew it he was so focused, listening to me, and trotting!!! I couldn't help but to find myself laughing and having such a great time as we maneuvered through the obstacles.

Lesson of the Day: My LBI will never be like my dog; I can't just get out a toy and have him be excited about playing. In order to get him to want to play, I first have to get his mind playing. He absolutely has to be engaged mentally in order for him to be engaged physically.

Our relationship has been improving so much lately, but this is going to take it to a whole new level. I hope that this influences him to want to be (and play) with me not only because there is a potential for treats and rests, but because of the fun we have together! This is a big challenge for me to become creative as ever in order to influence his mind into playing. Considering he was so creative yesterday, who knows what we will come up with next!