Käufer - Canine Play Behavior: The Science of Dogs at Play

Canine Play Behavior

The Science of Dogs at Play

Mechtild Kufer

Dogwise Publishing

A Division of Direct Book Service, Inc.

403 South Mission Street, Wenatchee, Washington 98801

1-509-663-9115, 1-800-776-2665

www.dogwisepublishing.com / info@dogwisepublishing.com

2013 Franckh-Kosmos-Verlags-GmbH & Co.

Photos: Friedrich Irle, Christoph Kufer, Mechtild Kufer, Roland Knoop, Sandra and Andreas Marek, Diane Pistioll, Jrgen Rhode, Ralph Schraven Graphic design: Lindsay Peternell

Translation from German Language: Donal Elsted kontakt@lernerleben.de

Originally published in German as Spielverhalten bei Hunden in 2011.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, digital or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

Limits of Liability and Disclaimer of Warranty:

The author and publisher shall not be liable in the event of incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of the instructions and suggestions contained in this book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request from the Library of Congress.

ISBN: 978-1-61781-153-1

Printed in the U.S.A.

Dedication

For my husband, who cant quite keep a straight face when the term dominance gets associated with our dogs.

Table of Contents

This book was created with the support of many dog-friendly people (and human-friendly dogs) and the result would have looked completely different without their assistance and commitment.

I would like to express my particular gratitude to Dr. Udo Gansloer for proofreading the manuscript and making many suggestions for improvement, for being always so open, for his unwavering patience in answering my many questions, for his advice and support during the writing of this book. My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Marc Bekoff, who fulfilled my long-cherished wish by reading the book and opening it with his insights and reflections about canine play. Many thanks also to Alex, Dr. Ris VanFleet, and Kate Kitchenham for their support.

I would also like to thank Stephanie Kafka and Petra Breuer-Dettmann for reading the manuscript, for their suggestions on how to make the book more readable and to Petra Mensel for her help. Thanks also to my brother, Christoph, Diane Pistoll, and Jrgen Rhode, Sandra and Andreas Merek, Fritz Irle and Ralph Schraven for their wonderful photos.

I would like to thank Rosie and Andreas Reimann, Belinda Kentenich, Ralph and Stefanie Schraven and Anette Thisse for allowing us to observe and photograph their puppies when they were playing.

My thanks also go out to Betty Balters, Kirsten Cremer, and Michael Neuhaus and the local DDC Group in Bochum, Brita Gnther of Tiertime, Achim Hren and the Teckelklub in Neuss, the Teckelklub in Meerbusch, the IDG-IRJGV group in Aachen, the SV Schferhunde Verein OG in Siersdorf, the Dog Sport Association in Kaarst and Wienen Dog School in Erkelenz for their support and the opportunity to photograph the dogs playing.

Thanks to all four-legged friends and their owners who did not allow their playtime to be put off by my presence. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to get to know so many dog owners, dog trainers and breeders when working on this book who, despite different approaches and attitudes, were willing to engage in honest and authentic exchanges of opinion. I learned a lot from you.

Foreword by
Dr. Udo Gans loer

Dogs play. Only very few peoplethe sort of biased people who usually belong to a certain school of dog training thoughtwould contest this fact. The same behavior seen in any other species would immediately be called play behavior. It seems almost superfluous to define play behavior, because anyone with an understanding of animals will recognize when an animal is in a playful mood. Yet, surprisingly, no one has yet thought to digest all of the essential background information into a dog owner and dog trainer friendly form. While literature on the play behavior of other animal groupsprimates, for examplefills shelf after shelf, there is not one single book that deals specifically with canine play behavior. Instead, one is obliged to engage in the laborious task of sifting through original articles and collating the necessary information oneself.

It becomes even more difficult if one wishes to link this dog-related information to general information on the neurobiological, physiological, and psychological effects of play behavior. Whileas I stated aboveinformation has been compiled on the meaning of play for a number of species, and books and articles relating to human psychology of play have also been published, to apply this information specifically to dogs and to then develop a potentially useful concept for canine play is in itself a very important task that urgently needs to be addressed.

Mechtild Kufer has done just that. She tracked down and analyzed a wealth of sourcesmany of them difficult to findand shaped them into an integrated structure that is both firmly grounded in sound theory and of practical applicability. Her book is the first to show why playing is important for dogs, and it also illustrates for the first time the role that we can take when playing with our dogs.

It will certainly allay many of the fears of people who, as a result of false or misunderstood training concepts, feel too inhibited to engage in unfettered play with their dogs. Hopefully, it will also help many dogs whose owners would otherwisefor ideological reasonsdeny them the opportunity to attend puppy play groups, or other forms of interaction with their fellow dogs. From a scientific point of view this is an enormously valuable book which places the results of in-depth research in the hands of both dog owners and trainers. It is, therefore, my deepest wish that it reaches a very large audience, and I hope that Mechtild Kufers ideas and the knowledge she has digested help to brighten the shadow that someunfortunatelyvociferous training philosophies have cast over this beautiful and essential behavior.

Dr. Udo Gansloer is Assistant Professor for Zoology at Greifswald University and holds a lectureship in the city of Jena, Germany. He has published a large number of publications on zoology, ecology, and mammalian behavior. He is a familiar face on the dog scene and has organized the Wolf & Co. Symposium since 2011. He is the author of Verhaltensbiologie fr Hundehalter (Ethology for Dog Owners) and Verhaltensbiologie fr Hundehalter: Das Praxisbuch (Ethology for Dog Owners: The Workbook), both published by Kosmos Verlag.

Foreword by
Dr. Marc Bekoff

It is essential to play and to enjoy it.

Somehow the world has to be set to playing. This quote, from Dr. Fred Donaldsons book