Wheeeee, the new 1/2 day seminar on play that I did in California a few weeks ago is out now on DVD, thanks to lots of hard work by Alta at Tawzer Videos. You can learn more about Dog Play on my website, but here’s the summary:
The seminar focused on three aspects of canine play:
1) The Natural History of Play: What IS play after all? Who plays and Why? (Those questions turn out to be much more complicated than you might think and have all kinds of interesting implications for us and our dogs!)
2) Play Between Dogs: What do we know about the development of play in dogs? The seminar includes new research out of Barbara Smut’s lab in Michigan about the development of play in dogs and what is “natural” and what is not. It also includes an in-depth discussion, with lots of videos, about what is appropriate and what is inappropriate play.
3) Play Between Dogs and People: This section summarizes the good, the bad and the ugly about play between two species, who are both attracted by our shared high levels of play as adults, and troubled by mis-communications that occur when members of two different species don’t learn one another’s play signals and play styles.
The DVD is about three hours long, and although I guarantee you that it’s not perfect, I am a little embarrassed to admit how much time was spent tweaking edits, smoothing transitions and dying a thousand deaths while watching myself, my double chin and my silly hair do. If you think you don’t like photographs of yourself, try watching yourself on video. But what’s important is the content, and I’m pleased to say that people at the seminar seemed to find it interesting and enjoyable. I love the topic myself, and love the interplay of science and daily life with dogs. I hope you enjoy it too.
Meanwhile, when you read this we’ll be on our way to the Maasai Mara, staying at Tipilikwani Camp right by the river. On the drive there from Amboseli, we’ll stop to get gas, discover that our urine does not fall straight out of our bodies as we try to aim for a tiny hole in the ground in the “rest room,” and no doubt watch some typical ‘village’ dogs hang out in the shade. Here’s some from a previous trip, showing the universal display of status and active submission seen in dogs around the world:
Dena Norton says
Trisha,
I was at a previous seminar on play, and it was a real eye-opener. I’m sure the DVD is terrific.
Hope you’re having lots of fun in Africa!
JJ says
Congratulations on producing another video. I have most of your collection already. I have enjoyed and gotten a lot out of them. The videos compliment the books nicely.
Question: I already have the “Play Together Stay Together” book. I also already have the play video by Karen where I think you did an introduction. Does this video have any new/different content? (Just thinking about my budget. I know I would enjoy the video.)
Here’s a question about dog ?play: Duke and I go to the dog park almost daily. Every so often we come across a dog that is bound and determined to hump either every dog he possibly can or fixates on one dog in particular. It happened again last night. There’s one dog named Monty who I knicknamed “Mounty”. The owners are not happy about the dog behavior and end up spending their whole time yelling at their dog and chasing and trying to pull him off (it’s usually a “he” I think). The dog underneath is not happy about it either.
I have read many books and articles about dog behavior. I know this can just be a status seeking behavior. But I do not remember reading anything that would help with this behavior. I do not know what sort of advice I can give these people.
Thanks. – JJ
kate says
What an awesome resource to have! I can’t wait to see where I fall…..crossing my fingers, I’m not guilty of any of the ugly 😛
As cautious as I am with children and people handling my dogs… I can’t resist smothering them in kisses at times 🙂
Very interesting to see what the wild dogs in different countries look like. I was traveling throughout India a while back and it was interesting to see the wild dogs in the rural areas all looked about the same mixed breed maybe different coat colours. It was heart breaking when I got to Mumbai & New Delhi where we saw quite a few of our purebreds who were left to fend for themselves.
Interesting to watch them act pretty much the same as the wild dogs even though at one time they must have been owned by a family (that I noticed anyways), but heartbreaking at the same time as I’m so used to dogs running up to say hello, wagging to charm me out of a treat in my pocket, which didn’t happen.
cheers,
Em says
Apologies if this is mentioned in the book. But I had a question regarding dog fighting during play.
I adopted a 3 year old mixed breed dog(cattle dog x) last year and used to go to the off leash park on a regular basis and she had many dog friends.She liked to control the play (for example be chased rather than chase) but played fairly equally with most dogs (didn’t bully and took turns being on top/bottom if wresting) and she playbowed and ducked often. She could be bossy but was still acting approproately as she retained a relaxed posture and never growled, mounted or snapped at the other dog and the other dog and her continued to have fun.I always made sure to call Jersey away when things got too rough, when she appeared to be too aroused/stimulated(her nipping at heels was getting a bit too hard) and when she looked overwhelmed.
However, a few incidents occured at the dog park which made me stop going. Jersey seemed to be angered by submissive dogs…especifically if they made the “screaming” sound associated with puppies. She was always gentle with puppies and very small dogs if they exhibited this behavior but would not tolerate it from any other dogs.Any time a dog screamed (puppy like high pitched yelp) during play and had the submissive posture (tail between legs, cowering, going belly up) it was if something snapped in her head and she would pin it and snap at it..she never drew any blood or made any contact..but she seemed to turn in the blink of an eye…if a dog was submissive(particularly combined with that sound) it set her off. She never took it “all the way” and I am not sure she would…
With Jersey it’s almost as if she skips a step…rather than reacting with a growl or bark if a dog is doing something she doesn’t like she reacts dramatically by pinning. If it were a human it would be as if someone who was annoyed with a stranger talking on his cellphone went and punched the stranger in the face rather than trying other steps such as asking the person to stop talking on the phone.
I wondering why this type of dog sets her off so badly? Is my dog a bully who simply enjoys/gets off on bullying submissive dogs? For instance, reading Pariticia’s book Jersey would have been set off by Pip and her submissiveness would drive her wild. Meanwhile, while Jersey would posture for position and act stiff with a more status-seeking dog like Lassie she would not have tried to pin her. For instance, Jersey got in a fight with a very assertive female husky where they stood very uprght and did a lot of “punching with their paws” it may have sounded scary and they did snap but once I clapped my hands Jersey ran to me. When she pins a submissive dog I have a hard time breaking her focus and getting her away.Jersey can be a wanna-be-alpha and status seeking but with dogs she likes she will tolerate being pushed around and does not seem concerned with status.
NOTE:For obvious safety reasons I no longer take her too offleash parks…and am also working with a wonderful trainer (more for leash reactivity).
Em says
I should also clarify, I think my discussion (and sorry for the long windedness) illustrated the completies of “dominance.” Before higher a trainer I did my research as I spoke to some who simply diagnosed my dog as being a “dominant dog who was trying to gain control and dominate everything around her” which is much too simplistic and doesn’t accurately capture my dogs behaviour.
In fact, Jersey responds better when a dog asserts itself. For example, on meeting a friends dog she greeted him very stiffly and when she snapped at him he rolled over submissively and Jersey pinned him (I intervened). On a later meeting Jersey greeted the same way but this time Fido (who was much younger and smaller at the time of there first meeting) barked sharply in her face…Jersey immediately relaxed and went into playbowed