Playing with an interactive toy is a great way to assess your dog’s body language and to identify how this looks when they are calm and enjoying themselves.

It’s also brilliant for bonding and promoting confidence but also very useful as a reinforcement for skills. The secret is to have the perfect item/toy for your breed and make the play interesting.

Tug toys are brilliant for this and we routinely use Tug-e-nuff toys in all our classes and 1-2-1 sessions as they are tough and durable and dogs seem to love them.

Try recording your dog as they play with a toy, ideally film this on a phone. Are they fully engaged, relaxed, excited – lots of tail wags and leaning forwards?

If you repeat the play in several different locations over a period of time, you can then again compare their body language signs.

If you then repeat the same exercise with a couple of weeks between the play sessions, you would expect to see notable changes in body language. This would indicate growth in confidence and resilience. It’s a good idea to remember that when rewarding them for completing a cued behaviour successfully you can use toys and praise as an alternative to treats.

We often get asked which toys we use and we now have a discount code for you. If you add ‘HARRISONS’ at the checkout, you’ll get a 10% discount!

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