Play

The photos below were part of this discussion. I can see bad play, I can even see poor play sometimes, but I get very confused when trying to evaluate play from dogs without previous 'good play history.'

Amber is a submissive, under-confident Labrador Retriever puppy. She's resilient but very soft. She's got good dog-dog skills and responds well to cues from others. As a puppy, she interacted with other Retrievers near daily. She learned some good and poor play habits there.

Frodo is a dog-reactive, middle-aged Pembroke Welsh Corgi. (If he were my dog, I would do a better job of labeling and describing him here.) He was also attacked by another dog while on a walk with his owner a week ago. He doesn't typically like other dogs and gets very few chances to play with others (as his owner's friends' dogs aren't ideal candidates either).

As Kristen and I discussed, "the play was not good, but it was very impressive" for Frodo.

I think Amber was relieved that another dog actually interacted with her at my house! My two usually ignore her completely.

Next time I'll remember to take video when I want to discuss play, Kristen!