22/08/2025
❤️❤️❤️🐾🐾
Structured play, what is it and why do I go on about it….
When I talk about structured play, I mean;
- Recalling from play
- Relaxing around other dogs
- Proper play (no one being too dominant or too submissive)
- Obedience around other dogs
- Lead walking practice around other dogs
In a lot of scenarios, structure doesn’t appear. Yes, playing with dogs at the dog park / daycare is great fun for some dogs, but can be massively overstimulating and cause other issues outside of that play.
When we implement structure to our dogs play, it enables them to regulate their emotions, keep below threshold and overall become calmer around other dogs.
More often than not, when I get a dog in who has leash frustration/reactivity, it’s due to being in a setting where there is no structure, and getting to play with who they want, when they want with little else going on.
A result of that, can be that they get very frustrated when they are on a lead and can’t greet the dog, which leads to reaction. This isn’t always the case, but it happens an awful lot.
We really want the best for our dogs, it’s all a learning curve and we learn from mistakes we made. There is no point dwelling on the things you should or should not have done, we all wish we had the ability to turn back time sometimes! All we can do, is move forward and keep doing right by our dogs
🫶🏼💜
