One of the most common questions I'm asked about Dobbs is, "Does he ever get any time off from work?" "When he's at home, does he get to just be a dog sometimes?" "When the harness is off," I say, "he's just a dog and he loves to play like one." Dobbs' favorite playtime game is tug. Whether it's keep-away tug with his Kong or just good old fashioned pull-tug with his Tug Ring, Dobby is a relentless and crafty dog. I love playing with him because it brings him so much happiness. Being a Guide Dog is hard work and Dobbs deserves all the time off he can get.
The other game Dobbs loves to play is fetch. Now fetch, as a rule, is usually discouraged for a guide dog because it can cause obsessive behavior to develop in a dog. One day you'll be working down a street and a bird will fly by and bang! off the two of you go in hot pursuit. Fetching isn't a normal behavior for dogs, as hard as that may be to believe, but is rather a learned behavior. I didn't teach Dobbs to fetch, somebody earlier in his life (prior to living with me) taught him to retrieve but he's got such a diligent work ethic that his playtime fetching hasn't ever shown any sign of spilling over into his working life.
The one problem that I have with fetch is in throwing out his chosen toy to retrieve. He likes to fetch his Nylabone and tossing that across the apartment can be a bit of an act of faith; faith that I won't hit or break anything with it. Dobby can go on fetching for a good half an hour before he tires out. Sometimes his dad (me) tires out more quickly than that but I keep going because I know how much he loves it. When you're in guide dog school they tell you that you need to try to schedule at least fifteen minutes per day to play with your dog. If Dobby got anything less than an hour and a half to two hours of play per day I think he'd go into withdrawal. As I've said, I don't mind and he willingly stops playing when I tell him "that's enough" so it's never become an obsession with him.
One regret that I have is that I haven't been able to secure an outdoor enclosed paddock where I can take Dobbs from time to time to let him run around and really chase after his Kong. Since it isn't safe for me to take Dobby to a dog park, due to the risk of a dog attack or his inadvertently contracting an illness from another dog, this is the one aspect of my guide dog transitional plan which I haven't been able to fulfill since returning home from guide dog school earlier this year. But I'm still looking!
One of the most common questions I'm asked about Dobbs is, "Does he ever get any time off from work?" "When he's at home, does he get to just be a dog sometimes?" "When the harness is off," I say, "he's just a dog and he loves to play like one." Dobbs' favorite playtime game is tug. Whether it's keep-away tug with his Kong or just good old fashioned pull-tug with his Tug Ring, Dobby is a relentless and crafty dog. I love playing with him because it brings him so much happiness. Being a Guide Dog is hard work and Dobbs deserves all the time off he can get.
The other game Dobbs loves to play is fetch. Now fetch, as a rule, is usually discouraged for a guide dog because it can cause obsessive behavior to develop in a dog. One day you'll be working down a street and a bird will fly by and bang! off the two of you go in hot pursuit. Fetching isn't a normal behavior for dogs, as hard as that may be to believe, but is rather a learned behavior. I didn't teach Dobbs to fetch, somebody earlier in his life (prior to living with me) taught him to retrieve but he's got such a diligent work ethic that his playtime fetching hasn't ever shown any sign of spilling over into his working life. 
The one problem that I have with fetch is in throwing out his chosen toy to retrieve. He likes to fetch his Nylabone and tossing that across the apartment can be a bit of an act of faith; faith that I won't hit or break anything with it. Dobby can go on fetching for a good half an hour before he tires out. Sometimes his dad (me) tires out more quickly than that but I keep going because I know how much he loves it. When you're in guide dog school they tell you that you need to try to schedule at least fifteen minutes per day to play with your dog. If Dobby got anything less than an hour and a half to two hours of play per day I think he'd go into withdrawal. As I've said, I don't mind and he willingly stops playing when I tell him "that's enough" so it's never become an obsession with him.
One regret that I have is that I haven't been able to secure an outdoor enclosed paddock where I can take Dobbs from time to time to let him run around and really chase after his Kong. Since it isn't safe for me to take Dobby to a dog park, due to the risk of a dog attack or his inadvertently contracting an illness from another dog, this is the one aspect of my guide dog transitional plan which I haven't been able to fulfill since returning home from guide dog school earlier this year. But I'm still looking!
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