Play with purpose! — The Missing Leash

"The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too." -Samuel Butler

Play is my secret weapon as a dog trainer! There are so many ways you can use a dog's natural desire to play as a way to make their training much easier and more productive. So if you want a well trained dog, an exceptionally well mannered member of the family and a companion that looks to you while you explore the world together, seek to learn their secret language of play!

Decide the goals of your play sessions

Exercise- Energetic repetitive play like fetch, tug
Self Control- Work obedience commands subtly into play, especially stays & sits
Building confidence and/or drive- keep control measures low, give the dog lots of praise and encouragement.
Rewarding behaviors you are training- use your play games and toys in place of treats wherever possible.

Keep the big picture in mind

Don’t work in bad habits like jumping up on you, biting skin, etc. Just because it’s play doesn’t mean you can’t have some expectations of behavior from your puppy. If they are getting out of control shift the play into something more calming like working on tricks or obedience commands.
Build & increase cooperative play- The play you should be encouraging is interactive play such as fetch & tug rather than games that involve keep away behaviors.
Keep working your play in the direction of being more productive and not counterproductive for good manners. It’s good to stop playing when the play is getting out of control or creating bad habits you don’t like you are seeing if it is not easy to re-direct your puppy into a more positive play game.
Rough Housing games that involving shoving, wrestling and mock fighting between people & puppies should always involve teaching the puppy to hold a toy rather then biting you.

A Few Specific Suggestions

When playing tug or fetch always acknowledge and mark when a puppy grabs YOU instead of the toy. Say “OUCH”, frown, pause the play for a moment. Even a high drive working dog can learn how to have a careful mouth with human hands and if your puppy spends anytime around children it is essential they learn not to mug people for toys. For a very mouthy puppy talk to me about suggestions if the ouch & pause doesn’t correct the issue.
Don’t encourage leaping or jumping up on you for the toy, have boundaries, you don’t have to be mean or nasty, just wait and don’t give them the toy until all 4 feet are on the ground!
When playing tug, only tug as hard as the puppy is tugging. If you keep ripping the toy out of their mouth they will give up trying. Generally you want to be the resistance they are tugging against rather than the other way around. Use your emotions, voice and body movements to increase drive gradually.
When playing fetch ALWAYS touch the dog not the toy when they bring it back. Let them hold the toy as you scratch their backs, pat their sides, and tell them how clever they are for getting the toy. Pick up and throw the toy again when they drop it or push it at you. If they don’t want to drop the toy don’t rip it from their mouth! Use another toy or treat to get them to drop the toy on their own.
When trying to get the puppy to approach you with a toy in their mouth, clap your hands and move away from them. Or if sitting on the floor take your fingers and tap the floor.
If your puppy likes to play keep away or doesn’t bring toys back yet, have either the dog or the toy on a leash. If the pup is on leash don’t pull them to you, just inch your way up the leash to them until you can pet them and remember, PET THE PUPPY instead of reaching for the toy!
Your goal is to teach your puppy you are a fun playmate who is safe to share their toys & games with, but also one with boundaries they can’t tromp all over and fill with bite marks.

Most dogs will be either good tuggers or good retrievers and you’ll have to work to get the one that is not natural to them. It’s a great bonding experience to work thru that challenge as it will require YOU to be more interesting and fun to make the less interesting toy fun to them! So a few ground rules when doing this:

Fun comes first, not your goals! So don’t throw out the fun insisting on hand delivery for a fetch with a dog that is not super excited to fetch in the first place, if you make it too hard they may just give up on playing this game at all with you.
Be creative! Play around with how you move the toy to perk interest. Keep in mind how animals that attract your dog’s attention move, usually quick little erratic movements and more interesting than long swooping slow movements.
Try not to be too intense, relax and have some genuine fun, if you are too intense your dog may find your energy way too much for them to loosen up and play. Sometimes in our efforts to get them to play we put out this intense energy that is read as possession and they break away taking our cues.
If working on retrieve games, put yourself in the center, ideally if you know where your dog likes to return with the toy, sit there, then toss the toy in opposite directions so they come back to where you are, expecting the next toy to be thrown to the other side. Use several of the same toy and don’t try to take the one they have. Wait until the drop the one they have before you toss the next one, don’t worry about where they drop it, just make your toy more interesting than the one they are holding.
Above all else, try to remember you are playing with the dog, the toy is just the conduit!!! Touch your dog, talk to them, love on them, playfully shove them, scratch them, let them know what you want is to connect with them.