Referring puppy play Flashcards
Why is refereeing puppy play important?
Play is a primary form of socialisation
What is the main consideration in puppy play?
Safety
What are the security issues we need to address in puppy class?
Double gated - airlock around all entrance and exit points.
Instruct owners on their use of double security
Monitor for breaches
Multiple chairs and other hiding places for shy pups
Can you run puppy play sessions outdoors?
No! We can’t ensure security/safety in an outdoor situation
What are the priorities of puppy play
Do no harm - protect pups from getting creamed
Everybody consents - pups & owners
Build confidence of shy pups
Why do we not want to install fear?
It’s easy to install and very hard to uninstall
What does padding pups mean?
Building up early experiences that are neutral or more ideally good
In life, shit happens, puppy play and socialisation are a bit like an insurance policy, we are giving the dog multiple good experiences so that when he has a bad experience he will hopefully bounce back quickly, and have a narrow fear if any
What do we mean by shy dogs?
Underconfident
Fearful
Why do we want to build the confidence of shy pups in play?
We want to undo the lack of confidence because of the time sensitivity. Otherwise we are trying to uninstall fear in an adult dog which is so much harder
What if a pup has no good experiences?
The puppy is at the highest risk - one bad experience = 100% bad! This can result in a hugely fearfully dog.
What if a pup has no good experiences?
The puppy is at the highest risk - one bad experience = 100% bad! This can result in a hugely fearful dog/phobia
What about the pup who has a handful of good experiences - thin padding
The fear from a bad experience could be limited to that experience only.
What about the pup who has dozens of good experiences? - thick padding
More resilient pup, better bounce back from bad experiences, potentially less fear from bad experiences
What about the thickest padded dog - I can’t count how many good experiences he has had!
The holy grail! This is optimal
What experiences do we need to have padding in for pups?
Body handling
Strangers
Dog dog
What is a big priority in puppy classes?
Socialisation, good experiences because of time sensitivity
What concerns might owners have?
Bringing overconfident pups down a peg or too
What notion do we need to push back against wt overconfident puppies
Bringing them down a peg or two
This will happen naturally. It doesn’t need to be orchestrated
We do not want to risk installing fear
Tearing pups down is easy, building them up is difficult & sometimes impossible
What do we need to be careful of in puppy classes?
Overconfident pups interactions wt shy pups
How can we help confident & shy dog interactions?
We need to focus on wrangling to protect the shy pups
Separate play areas
Sequester small pups fm much larger pups until they prove they are raucous & padded