{"id":10377,"date":"2013-05-26T12:08:37","date_gmt":"2013-05-26T19:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedoginc.com\/play-fun-food-games-with-your-dog"},"modified":"2013-05-26T12:08:37","modified_gmt":"2013-05-26T19:08:37","slug":"play-fun-food-games-with-your-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shibashake.com\/dog\/play-fun-food-games-with-your-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Play Fun Food Games with Your Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing with our dog<\/a>\u00a0is good for many reasons –<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Bonding<\/strong>\u00a0– Dog play allows us to engage in a joint activity with our dog. In particular, we teach our dog certain skills, or work together with him to achieve common goals. This helps significantly with the bonding process.<\/li>\n
  2. Pack leadership<\/strong>\u00a0– While playing with our dog, it is important that we stay in control of the game. I set up some rules for the game and teach my dog to follow those rules. This helps to keep everyone safe, and helps to teach my dog good behaviors during his play sessions. Rules and structure will also put us in the leadership position and help establish us as the pack leader.<\/li>\n
    <\/div>\n
    \"Siberian
    Play Fun Food Games with Your Dog<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
  3. Positive outlets for hyper energy<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0– Setting up regular play sessions will also help redirect our dog’s hyper energy into positive areas. This lowers the likelihood of him becoming frustrated, or finding games<\/em> to play on his own that may not be people or property friendly.<\/li>\n
  4. Dog obedience training<\/strong> – Dog play also presents a great opportunity to obedience train our dog. I throw in frequent breaks during play sessions, so that my dog does not get overly excited and loses control. Break-time is a great time to slip in some obedience training commands.<\/li>\n
  5. Fun for everyone<\/strong>\u00a0– Playing with our dog is fun for everyone. If we do it right, our dog will have a blast and so will we. I keep dog play sessions short, interesting, and rewarding. I experiment with a variety of games to keep my dog engaged. I stop playing\u00a0before<\/strong>\u00a0he gets bored, so that he will always want more.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \"Man
    Bonding \u2013 Dog play allows us to engage in a joint activity with our dog.<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n

    Why Food Games?<\/h2>\n
    \"Siberian
    Why Food Games?<\/div><\/div> <\/div><\/div>\n

    Food games are especially fun to play with a dog, because food is usually a strong motivator. Instead of giving my dog all of his food in his silver bowl, I keep some to use during our play sessions.<\/p>\n

    It is always strange to me why some people are against using food during play and training. Dogs need to eat, therefore we either make them work for their food or give food to them for free. Giving free food to a dog does not teach him anything except that food is easy to come by, and no effort needs to be expended to get what he wants.<\/p>\n

    On the other hand, using food during play and\u00a0obedience training\u00a0teaches the dog that-<\/p>\n