How Playing with Your Dog Like a Puppy Can Reduce Fear #95
Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett
DogsThat
4.8 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2021
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Visit us at shapedbydog.com
Are you the type of dog owner who loves to play with your dog or puppy? It’s a great way to have fun, teach your dog life skills, and can help reduce fear. The tips we’re covering today are essential for all dogs, and if you have an interest in dog agility, I’m also sharing how this applies to dog sports and confidence. Changing just one element of the way you play will have a big impact on how your dog learns and help to decrease fears and phobias.
In the episode you'll hear:
• What happened with my Jack Russell, Shelby when she didn't want to visit the Vet.
• How we can desensitize and counter condition fear for our puppies and dogs.
• My observations about how dogs play with other dogs.
• Why I have "game on" and "game off" permissions when playing with my dogs.
• About knowing what happens before your dog says, "game off".
• Why I created a game called “Smack Da Baby!”.
• The importance of our dogs learning to love physical touch by humans.
• How I incorporate “Smack Da Baby!” in a game of tug.
• All the stages of including touch for dogs in play.
• About putting time into where your dog tells you they need confidence.
• The one time I grab my dogs by the muzzle and why.
• How my dog DeCaff shaped me to play with her and the impact on weaving in agility.
• Why play helps your dog with many life skills.
• The importance of taking action if you notice your dog is not comfortable
Resources:
• Podcast Episode 89: Why Dogs Should Not Tug: The Truth Revealed - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/89/
• Book: Shaping Success by Susan Garrett - https://dogsthat.com/product/shaping-success-2/
• Podcast Episode 86: How to Train Unmotivated or Overexcited Dogs - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/86/
• Blog Post: Who’s Shaping me? - https://susangarrettdogagility.com/2009/09/whos-shaping-me/
• Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/LvwARdx9Ss4
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Are you the kind of dog owner who loves to play with your dog or play with your puppy? |
| 0:15.1 | If not, why not? It's not only a great way to have fun with your puppy or dog. It's actually a great way to teach |
| 0:22.9 | them lessons. And if you are somebody who loves to play with your dog or play games with your |
| 0:28.7 | puppy, you are in luck because in today's podcast, I'm going to share with you how by just changing |
| 0:33.8 | one element of how you play with your puppy or your dog could have an astronomical |
| 0:38.8 | effect on not only how that dog learns, but also it can decrease fears and phobia in that dog. |
| 0:46.4 | And this is particularly important for those of you who listen to this podcast and have any |
| 0:51.7 | interest in ever playing in the sport of dog agility. |
| 0:54.5 | Hi, I'm Susan Garrett. Welcome to Shape by Dog. I want to take you back to 1998. |
| 0:59.9 | I had a little Jack Russell Terrier. Her name was Shelby. And about the third time she went to |
| 1:05.0 | the veterinarian. She was probably 15 or 16 week old puppy. She got to the front door and she put |
| 1:09.9 | on the brakes, like backpedaled, |
| 1:11.4 | no, we're going back to the car. And I actually had to pick her up and carry her into the vet |
| 1:16.0 | clinic. And she had her ears pinned back in her tail pinned and she was like cowering. Her eyes |
| 1:23.7 | were so big you could see the whites under her eyes and she was just panting and panting |
| 1:28.9 | and swallowing and panting. You could tell she was not a happy dog. Oh, on top of that, |
| 1:33.7 | her whole body was vibrating. She just shook and she kept like that right until we got out of the |
| 1:39.9 | vet clinic. And then afterwards, she was super thirsty and she had to pee. It was heartbreaking. Now, |
| 1:45.9 | I just concluded, wow, for whatever reason, my puppy or dog as she grew up is afraid of going to |
| 1:52.0 | the veterinarian clinic. But it doesn't have to be that way because anytime there's a fear, |
| 1:57.0 | we can desensitize that fear or countercondition the fear. And those two generally go hand in hand. So desensitize that fear or counter condition the fear. And those two generally go hand |
| 2:02.7 | in hand. So desensitization means you are making the stimulus, giving the dog little inoculations |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from DogsThat, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of DogsThat and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.