The truth comes out

I'm not good at journaling!  I have the best of intentions, but I tend to be very spotty.  Hopefully the next few weeks will be better.  I have signed up for "Relationship Building Through Play" at Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, at the Bronze level, which means that I can't actually participate in the discussions, etc.  So.... I am going to pretend that this is associated with that, and do my coursework and videos, etc., and post them here.  Class starts on the first, so it will be a few days yet.  However, the first lecture/intro is up. with some homework, so here goes:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your dog's current interest in each form of play (food, toy, and personal). Feel free to expand beyond a number.
Food - this is tricky.  He hunts for food with gusto when I do nose work stuff, but I am not sure if that counts as "food play", since there isn't much interaction with me.  For actual "food play".... 3?  Toys - around an 8.  This is a lot of throwing and chasing them, not so much tugging.  He grabs toys all the time.  Just need to get better at interacting with him and them.  Personal play - 5.  I think that his wiggling around on his back is actually him trying to entice me into personal play, I just don't know how to engage in it with him properly.  That is going to be the trickiest one, since I also am dealing with him mouthing the hands when I try and play with him, and don't want to encourage that.  He will chase me as well, but quite often will grab a toy when he does that, so I don't know if it counts.

2. How much time have you put into playing with you personally? With toys? With food? Use a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being "almost never" and 10 being "all the time!" Consider each element separately.
Food - 2?  Depends on how we define it.  I am trying to incorporate more hunting for food.  Toys - 9.  I love to watch him tearing around with toys, and throw them a lot for him.  Personally - 1?  I'm concerned about the mouthing and jumping, but would love to increase this.  Especially since one of the lectures is titled "My dog is biting me!", so I'm thinking they've dealt with this issue before.

3. What percentage of your training time do you reward with food? Toys? Personal play? (This may not add up to 100% if you frequently combine motivators.)
Official training time is almost 100% food.  Training that happens incidentally during play time is almost 100% toys, but it is also a lesser percentage that "official training time".  Official is me actually trying to teach a new cue/behavior, incidental is when we are playing and I ask Rigger to do something before throwing the toy.   So play is the focus there, as opposed to learning something new.

4. Review the above information. Do you see any patterns?
I use food because it's what I know and am comfortable with.  I don't fade it out as quickly as I probably should, especially since I'd rather have my dogs work for their food as opposed to just eating it out of a bowl. 

5. Does this information provide you with any goals for this class?
I have several goals.

1. Become more comfortable with personal play
2. Become more adept at toy play.  I like doing this, I just need to get better at the skills.
3. Hopefully, become more animated and engaging in general.  I am rather reserved and low-key in general, and am hoping that this class teaches me ways of better expressing the joy I feel when watching and interacting with my dogs.  Or at least that I will have a lot of practice at it, which may then rub off on other parts of my life.