Here are some more ideas on how to improve your relationship with your dog. Most of these ideas are extracted from the award winning book “My Doggie Says…: Messages from Jamie. How a dog named Jamie “talks” to her people.”
Deal with your dog. Don’t expect your dog to do things that other dogs do. Dogs are different. They have different personalities, and they are good at different things. There is a dog named Samantha in my neighborhood that is a great Frisbee dog. Throw a Frisbee and Samantha will catch it. If you think this is pretty neat, you can work with your dog and try to train it to be a Frisbee dog.
But it’s important to discover what your dog likes to do and reinforce it’s talents. For example, I always thought it would be fun to play ball with a dog. But Jamie was not interested in playing ball. But she did love to retrieve her “Floppy” (like a cloth Frisbee) at Lake Arrowhead. On the other hand, our new puppy, Callie (now six months old), made it clear from the beginning that she likes to play with balls. Especially, her soccer ball. She initiates soccer games with me all the time. I make it a point to play soccer with Callie two or three times a week, and I know she appreciates it. (See photos in previous posts.)
During this last week, Callie has learned to swim, and, like Jamie, she loves to retrieve her Floppy from Lake Arrowhead.
Find some activities that you both enjoy. Jamie loved to share our early-morning, three-mile jog. When she saw us in our jogging clothes, she would get excited and go stand in the front hallway waiting to go jog. This was wonderful for both of us. The exercise helped both Jamie and me stay in good shape. And it helped Jamie knock off that “nervous edge” that doggies get when they don’t get enough exercise.Think of it this way: you and your dog are losing weight together. “A tired dog is a happy dog!”
Callie’s soccer is another example. I’m not really a soccer player, but I enjoy kicking the ball around, and I find it a fun way to interact with Callie. There’s really no winner or loser; we’re both having fun playing “keep away.” And I know Callie loves it, because she keeps inviting me to play.
Let your dog train you to do some things. It’s hard to know, sometimes, who is training whom. When Jamie was young, we trained her to “touch the bridge.” There was a bridge about one-half way around our jogging route, and when we stopped for water, we would get Jamie to touch the wood railing of the bridge. We rewarded her with a puppy treat. But after a while, Jamie figured out that if she “touched the bridge,” she would get a puppy treat. So she started doing it without being commanded to do it. So who’s the trainer? And who’s the trainee? We kept on giving her the puppy treat, because it seemed OK for Jamie to win this little game. Besides, it made her feel really good.
We let the same thing happen with Jamie’s puppy treat jar. She knew where the puppy treats were stored in our kitchen. If I walked to the Kitchen, Jamie would stand by the puppy treat jar and look at me to make eye contact. The message was clearl “May I please have a puppy treat?” Like “touch the bridge” we let Jamie win this game most of the time, and I think it strengthened our bond.
