Silver Award, Playing with dog????

[BusyBee]

Sam started his Silver award last Saturday, next week we have to bring a toy in and demonstrate that we can play with our dogs. This is probably going to sound a bit thick but I'm really not 100% sure what this means? as a retrieve is not allowed or rough and tumble (which I don't allow anyway)

I do play with Sam but not really with a toy... We play things like hide and seek (liver cakes), and the daily game of I'm a massive dinosaur and I'm going to eat you, which results in him running around like a loony for 20 mins but when he has a toy I leave him to it (kong wubba is the favourite) should I just take his favourite toy and encourage him to squeak it? The majority of games we play don't really lend themselves to a small Scout Hall with 8 other dogs in it.

Just wondered what other members did for this part of the test?

Thanks

Sally

[Sasha]

Did you do your Puppy Foundation and Bronze awards? Playing with your dog is part of them as well.

Anyway, I take a class of pups for the Puppy Foundation , the thing I look for is that the owner does something with the dog that builds up their relationship, or builds up a bit of a bond between them eg a bit of tuggy or throwing a ball a little way for fetch (though with tuggy, I like to see that the pup is happy to give up the toy). What I say to my puppy owners is that I want the pup to enjoy playing with them so that they'll want to please them and make their training easier.

Sorry that's a bit garbled, but I think the spirit of the kcgc awardls means that it's all about making sure dog and owner enjoy their relationship and that the dog behaves well

[BusyBee]

Thanks Sasha, we passed the bronze 5 weeks ago but we didn't have to do any 'playing'. Wouldn't fetching a toy (thats been thrown) be classed as a retrieve? and I don't allow tugging games

I think I'll just take his wubba and chuck it around a bit the trainer did say that mostly everyone ends up swapping toys, because the dogs are always more interested in someone elses. I guess all will be revealed on Saturday.

Sally

[Jude]

At silver level the object of playing with a toy is not only to get the dog to play but to make sure that the handler can take the toy away from the dog, even after a tugging game.

[zetstaff]

I took a piece of towel tied in a knot as a raggy, had a bit of a play, + as Jude says the idea is you can get your dog to give it up

[lauraburns]

Ozzie isn't a very toy orientated dog, so I took his Wubba down and just threw it for him a couple of times had a little tug! The main thing the examiner wants to see is that your dog is happy to interact with you with play being instigated and ended by you, and that the dog doesn't go wild and out of control at the sight of a toy!

[BusyBee]

Ah thanks guys, it makes a bit more sense now, I will take his wubba then, he loves that toy and mostly stops when I say 'enough', I better get practicing