Playing with a Dog--Pointers for Correct Play with Your Puppy

When your puppy learns the rules of how to fetch, carry and let go, it will have taken a big step toward being a well-trained adult dog. In this way, if done properly, your puppy also finds that learning can be fun. And it is because in training, you are, from the puppy point of view, showing it how to do its job. When you roughhouse and play fight with your dog, you teach it to play and not to bite. In the same manner, you teach it to work for something it wants.

In the course of a good rough and tumble, you will use words that he will remember next time. He will learn "Stop that," if he gets rough himself. If he needs reprimanding, a firm "No!" and a quick tap on the rump should make him behave.

Protect your puppy against what is really teasing, as when children call it "play" to steal his toys and hold them out of reach or to wrestle too roughly and hurt him. In addition, never play with him, or let children do so, until the point of exhaustion.

Reward him when you are teaching him something new, and let the play increase his understanding of you and your understanding of him. The time you spend with him can develop into a closer bond. He is learning, among other things, that you are his owner.