Teaching Athena To Play

Athena is about 3 1/2 years old now and she only knows pull toy and keep away (run away) for play. She is generally a little nervous when I try to wrestle with her up close. She wants to play but really doesn't know how.

Last night she was bugging us to play so I took off my glasses and got down on all fours and dropped my head down. I read somewhere that that is the universal dog language for "what happens next is play." She seemed interested so I started picking at her by swatting at her paws. She tends to growl a lot when she plays, and it can sound menacing. She also has these playful lunges that take a little getting used to.

I was down "wrestling" with her for about 5 minutes before she took off to get a toy to play tug of war with. That was a record for her! She is way too good at tug of war - requiring you to have  a lot of strength. Again, she growls the whole time and it gets worse if you pull with one hand and scratch her head with the other. Here is a little video of her playing pull toy.

We are off to hike Wagon Wheel Lake tomorrow on the Olympic Peninsula. It is the only trail I know of that has a warning sign at the trailhead that says it is the hardest trail in the area. Not surprisingly, we are currently a force of 2. We have had a maybe, a no and a lot of silence so far.

I hope you like the video. I'll try to catch some more Athena moments.

More soon.....