Eight canine play moves I’ve learned from different dogs

A guest post by Sean

I’ve recently had the chance to play a few times with our neighbor’s large German shepherd, TBone.

I was happy to realize that I was a lot more comfortable being physical with him than I might have thought. He’s a big, fun-loving oaf — so getting him into a game was no problem.

After a few minutes I realized that our play conversation was feeling very natural. I’ve learned so much about dog play from Scout that TBone and I quickly fell into an (at least semi) coordinated dance.

Thinking about it more, I realized that there are a number of moves (or “strategies” as Haley calls them) I’ve picked up from mirroring Scout. They’re kind of like common words or phrases I can use when having a play conversation with a dog. Here are the eight I’ve experienced most often!

* Note from Haley: Sean isn’t a professional trainer or canine expert — neither of us are! I will say he’s much better at playing with dogs than I am, though, and I’ve always appreciated his natural insight.

1) The Play Bow

(English…