1.12 - Fun & Games

Games are motivating for dogs, owners, trainers, and onlookers. Games bring out the best performances in dogs and owners, and sometimes in trainers. Playing games (with many rules) is one of the easiest (and sneakiest) ways to get owners to pay attention to instructions and to achieve owner compliance. Most important though, playing games is the least intimidating way to objectively assess the reliability and precision of performance and the effectiveness (in terms of “time and trials to criterion”) of training techniques. Playing games increases the speed (and enjoyment) of learning and the quality of the owners’ and dogs’ performances.