LPT: if your dog is being playful and you need to catch them, try running away to have them chase and catch you.
My dog stopped falling for this after I got her to chase me back into the house a few times
Play bow. Dogs do this to each other, too, as a signal that they want to play.
Source: I speak dog.
Of course, dogs have many varied dialects, but these are the kinds of things I see dogs saying to each other:
- Butt sniff = “I am meeting you! Can I meet you?” This may receive a snarl and snap and bared teeth response, which usually means “I’m not comfortable around new dogs because I have dogtism, give me a minute.”
- Biting and snarling at another dog’s neck while the tail is wagging = “WE ARE PLAYING! THIS IS FUN!”
- Barking at dogs which are play biting at each other’s necks = “Are you okay? I think you’re okay, but I’m not sure, because I’m only a dog.”
Dogs also code switch between talking to other dogs and talking to humans. Furthermore, when dogs talk to humans, they generally tailor their vocabulary specifically to the people who they interact with most.
- Laying on the back or side and making a “face swipe” pantomime with one paw to their own face = “It is time to pet me.”
- Going straight to the front door and sitting at noon or 9PM = “It is time for my nap or bedtime. You will let me outside in front to go potty, after which I will eagerly run in, straight into my crate, and wait for my cookies.”
- Stopping and looking back at you after you let him out the back door = “Are you going to come out? I really want you to come out and play frisbee.”
If your dog is ever running and you can’t catch them act hurt. Pretend to fall and hurt your knee. Most likely it will come back and check on you and you grab it, unless it’s playing with something else then good luck
I bought a 25 foot leash when training my dog. I’ll never catch him if he doesn’t want me to, but I can get within 25 feet of him.
We use that on trails so he can be “free”
Also helps that he’s 10lbs, the 10m leash slows him down just from dragging on the ground
My boy has since passed on, but he would never consider leaving us. So we just let him off the leash on the trails. Whenever we heard people ahead of us we’d call him back and put him back on the leash until they were out of earshot again. It never caused any problems in the 12 years he was with us. Such a precious, beautiful boy.
I wish he was good enough for that but he believes he’s a hunting dog and if he smells deer scent he’s gone… He event managed to dig out a portridge once! He picked up the scent, stopped listening to us and 30 seconds later bam, bird came out of hiding 10m from us and our dog came back as if nothing happened.
My dog does this but also shows me her butt, which is an indicator for “come chase me dad”. Its cute, until its not. Heh
