Each time I've brought Star over to work her magic with her cousin Genghis, my sister and I sit watching in stupefaction over the things that the two of them apparently find enjoyable.
For both of them, repeated biting of each others' necks appears to be a favorite pastime. Genghis also loves taking Star's legs in his mouth, and they both love flipping over on their backs with their mouths open, gnashing their teeth in each others' general direction.
All this goes on in near-complete silence. There's the occasional growl, gurgle, or snap, but most of the time they're totally quiet.
There's a feeling of total engagement, complete camaraderie, almost what you would call calmness. A kind of doggie Zen, where the two are completely on the same wavelength.
Until recently, I never saw this kind of play with Star and Fozzie. They've always gotten along pretty well together, but their play has had a different kind of intensity, with more running, more tugging, more loud vocal yodeling and arguing.
I thought that Fozzie was just like most normal dogs, in that he didn't really enjoy having his neck continually bitten and so couldn't get into a play session with Star.
Then I let them into the guest bedroom together. With a cushy, Queen-sized bed all to themselves, and away from under Lamar's judgmental eye, they hit a new groove and had one of those Zenlike play sessions.
No growlies, no snappies, just mutually enjoyable biting, chewing, wrestling, and a bit of humping.
Not once did I feel they were on the verge of getting out of hand; they just went at it for a while then stopped when they were tired.
I was happy to see that they had that capacity! Star and Genghis seem always to be in the mood for the same kind of play, but it was nice to see Star and Fozzie able to get into that groove too.
It doesn't surprise me that Fozzie is not always up for the kind of rough play Star loves, as I think of Fozzie as a very complex dog. (I hope my sister isn't reading this. But if you are, yes, I know Genghis is a very complex dog. Maybe Star just brings out the big goof in him).
Do your dogs have different play styles? Have you noticed that some are incompatible because of these differences, and just need to find the right playmates?
Anyone who has ever been unemployed knows that having a job is key to self esteem.
Even shelter dogs suffer from having no serious work to do, which is why staff in more progressive shelters are always finding ways to engage and employ their residents.
Star's been really lucky in that regard.
Not long after she joined us, a job opened up that immediately piqued her interest.
She already knew she had an aptitude for playing with large, goofy dogs with similar (read: annoying) play styles.
Her early play sessions with Genghis were so vigorous in fact that they were probably what caused her hernia-like swelling and landed Genghis in the vet's office as well with a hematoma on his ear.
In which vet visit we learned that, in fact, Genghis could stand to lose a few pounds.
Which led to the offer, and Star's immediate acceptance, of a job as Genghis' personal trainer.
Star takes her job very seriously. She's been going over several nights a week and wrestling, chewing, rolling around, and generally working out with her larger cousin.
This is a great setup all around. Genghis gets exercise, a huge help because for humans who do have jobs, it can be hard to find enough time to provide adequate exercise to the pooch.
My sister and I get hours of entertainment, as we sit with a glass of wine, watch Genghis enclose Star's entire head in his mouth, Star chew heartily on Genghis' neck, and Genghis drag Star across the floor as they both hold on to a chew toy as if their lives depended on it.
And Star gets the satisfaction of a job well done.
What do YOUR dogs do for a living?
Though I may myself be a nervous wreck when it comes to rowdy dog play, others have been using it to great advantage in the shelter system.
The Washington Humane Society, Star's alma mater, faces all the challenges that you would expect in a municipal, open-access shelter in a major metropolitan area: high volumes of intakes, a large quantity of pit bull-type dogs, limited funds to spend on state-of-the-art facilities. Lately though they have been implementing some new programs that I think hold great hope for the animals housed there.
Earlier this year, Florian and I went to the shelter to observe and learn from a play group session held by Aimee Sadler of the Longmont Humane Society in Colorado. At that shelter, regular play groups have played a role in reducing the canine euthanasia rate by 60% since 2004, even as intakes increased over the same period. Sadler has been touring the country to train shelters for free in holding regular play groups for canine residents, in hopes that more shelters can begin using creative ways to save more lives.
It appears that getting out for supervised, unstructured play time with other dogs can have dramatic effects on shelter dogs' behavior and adoptability. Shy dogs can come out of their shell in the presence of others of their kind, and their new confidence transfers to their interactions with humans. Dogs with poor social skills learn better ways of interacting from dogs who are more socially savvy. All the dogs get nice and tired so they are calmer when meeting prospective adopters, and shelter staff get to learn things about the dogs in their care that they would not otherwise have known--like energy level, play style, and comfort with all sorts of other canines.
One concrete benefit in terms of lives saved is that with the knowledge gained from play groups, shelter staff can pair up dogs in kennels based on compatibility--so the shelter has greatly increased capacity.
Play groups are beginning to be recognized, as demonstrated by this post in Dog Star Daily, as a powerful tool for shelters to increase adoptions and improve animals' lives. The Washington Humane Society now has regular play groups, supervised by staff members and volunteers, for as many dogs as they can get out. Can you imagine the improvement in quality of life for all the animals who are spending hours a day playing outside, instead of in the shelter all day? Makes me happy to think about.
The Longmont Humane Society's live release rate for dogs is now an impressive 92.5%, compared to 78% in 2004. Can we get there in DC? I certainly believe we can, and hope the shelter will continue aggressively pursuing any and all means to get there.
Thank you for all your wonderful comments on dog play for the past few posts; the insights were really helpful in figuring out how to manage this new rowdy dog situation I've got here.
Since I got Star, my thoughts on the topic have evolved and continue to.
At first, I was thinking that hearty play sessions with Fozzie were really my only hope of tiring Star out and that it was a healthy activity that they would regulate themselves without too much intervention.
I was impressed with how they would get so riled up, but then take time outs on their own where they just stood apart for a few seconds, or went and got a drink.
Then they got into that fight over a stick, and I got really nervous. The shelter trainer told me that she believes in intervening in potential scrappies early, and for a few days after that I didn't let the two outside together at all, preferring to avoid all the stress it caused me. I also thought that with dogs like this, it is better to not give them practice in wild, impulsive behavior--even if it is good-natured.
As I saw their friendly faces, licks, and body language toward each other though, I began to relax and let them have a romp or two. I found again that they separated on their own, so I began to relax my rules and let them engage in some wild running circles and wrestling sessions. When I get stressed out, I approach them with a squeaky toy or bounce a ball near them, and when I've done that Star has gone after the toy--which tells me that her mood and her intentions while she was engaged with Fozzie were all about fun, not conflict.
They have not had another fight since that one involving a stick, and I have been really pleased with their ability to take time-outs on their own volition. You can just see from their interactions that neither is a dog who wants to fight, in fact they have shown a fair amount of skill in avoiding it. They both just want to have fun, and they are not subtle in how they express that.
I have to admit that I still feel my heart go into my throat every time the wild wrestling action begins, and I reserve the right to indulge my inner stress case and not allow wild playing in the future. But for now I am learning a lot through this process, and I appreciate your letting me bounce ideas off you!
One of the areas of dog behavior and training that I'm still pretty uncertain about is dog play. How rough can you let it be, before you need to intervene?
I know that while many people get kind of nervous at the first sign of growling, face biting, humping and such, I think the general consensus among dog training professionals is that a certain amount of rough play is OK, depending on the dogs and the context.
Dogs with good social skills may get very vocal and wrestle, put their mouths around each other, and climb up on each other in a way that looks incredibly rough to us, and then disengage when they need to with everyone happy and unharmed.
Other dogs, like Star, will miss or ignore the social signals that other dogs use to keep things from escalating. For these dogs, us humans will have to intervene more often.
As I mentioned earlier, Star had some nice play sessions with Fozzie where they got loud and rowdy, and then got out if it on their own.
Then they were playing with a stick, and the rough
play escalated into a fight. It was a bit scary and hard to disentangle this time. No major
harm done, but I'd really rather not repeat that experience!
Speaking to the trainer at the shelter, I realized I don't have to. It was fun to watch them racing around
the yard, but there are plenty of ways to get a dog adequate exercise without putting anyone in danger.
Fozzie enjoys running with a foster dog, but he always looks like he is a bit reluctant to do it, like he doesn't know quite how its going to turn out. I think I'm the one who needs to respect Fozzie's social signals, and protect him more from all these young upstarts I bring home.
Much as I enjoy a good play session, it is actually kind of a relief to know that I don't have to let them go wild. I can intervene before anyone gets annoyed, or in the case of a particularly annoying dog like Star, I can bypass that whole potential for stress by exercising everyone in a way that is best for him or her.
Do your dogs play like wild little beasties? How far do you let it go before you get nervous?
The shelter is working to find a rescue group to take Star, feeling she's not quite ready for adoption but had made huge progress in that direction. I agreed to take her for the weekend to see how she does in a home environment.
I was a little worried about how she'd do with Fozzie and Lamar, but for a weekend I knew I could manage keeping them separate if I had to.
First thing she had to
do upon greeting them in my back yard was of course to put her paws up
on their shoulders, not exactly the most polite way to meet a new
friend!
Fozzie let her know how he felt about that vocally and loudly, and I was very happy to see that she backed down.
The
rest of the afternoon and evening, those two had a wild time in the
back yard. Circles around and around and around and around, until
everyone was wheezing and gasping for breath and they still didn't stop.
There were some intense wrestling matches too, which got very vocal and made me nervous they were going to escalate. The first couple of times I intervened, and then they both got more angry because there was a human holding them by the collars.
I separated them, and fortunately separating them was easy and they seemed to bear no ill will toward each other.
The next time they got loud and intense, I decided to just let them be. I watched as they got loud and intense, the snarling getting louder, rearing up on each other, mouthing each other, and then just...stopped. They stood next to each other, panting, and then went over and had a beverage together.
Then started running around again, until they stopped, again, and had a drink.
Star definitely can get aroused more than some dogs. But thinking back to Sandy or Pager or Colette, or certainly Fozzie when I first had him, I don't think she's much worse than any of those dogs--all of whom had very happy endings.
We spent some time in the yard raking leaves, and she got very excited about the rake and started going after it and biting it.
She was easy to redirect though and happy to sit for a treat instead. She shows very little of that frustration intolerance she did the first couple of times I was with her--she's much more willing to go along with what the humans want.
Inside, she pestered Fozzie a little bit just the way my previous fosters used to, but eventually she followed his lead and plotzed out.
She got more and more affectionate the more time she spent here.
As if she couldn't quite believe her good fortune or contain her excitement at first, but then the natural goodness that is inside all dogs just started to express itself as she relaxed.
I am keeping her separate from Lamar, mostly as I have bad memories of Blue and want to be extra safe this time around.
Lamar
is getting extra therapeutic massage. I hope he understands that
sometimes his mom just has to foster, there's no choice in the matter.
How could you not give this girl a chance?
Then I let them into the guest bedroom together. With a cushy, Queen-sized bed all to themselves, and away from under Lamar's judgmental eye, they hit a new groove and had one of those Zenlike play sessions. 
Not once did I feel they were on the verge of getting out of hand; they just went at it for a while then stopped when they were tired. 
