What signals do your pets send indicating they wish to play?
Like many dogs, we might be watching tv in the family room and our GSD would come bounding in noisily chewing on her favorite squeaky toy strategically positioned directly in front of you. If that elicited no response from the humans she would leave the room and come back with a different toy in her mouth. Repeat as necessary.
Patience the Labrador would drop The Ball on the ottoman to signal that it was time to stop reading, eating or watching TV in the family room, and instead throw The Ball.
Cat number one likes to play fetch with a milk bottle ring he keeps around. Whenever he’s feeling playful, he’ll just plop it on my lap and wait for me to throw it.
Cat number two likes to attack my elbows as I sit peacefully and unsuspectingly in my recliner.
Needless to say, I like cat number one’s approach better.
Our dog picks up a ball/stick/etc, and either drops it into our laps, or wedges it behind us on the chair. Then she’d sit and stare at us, panting lightly with desire. Works every time, too. The cats interestingly enough, do not initiate play with us- only with the dog or one another.
Since I’ve always had multiple dogs at the same time, playing with us usually happens as a last resort when one of the other dog’s doesn’t want to play anymore.
It’s usually a “here’s one of my toys…play with me!”
Abbey is the quiet one. She doesn’t initiate but she will join in on the fishing pole or laser pointer. Resident catnip junkie. She’s limited to twice a week. The second time she got the catnip, she recognized the container from the first hit.
Lizzie is a self-starter. Her favorite game is to run full speed through the house. Rather than chase the fishing lure, she prefers to wrestle the pole. Loves the laser pointer.
Neither Abbey or Lizzie ask to play, they wait for play to come to them.
Molly will bring a mousie, sit in front of it and stare you in the eye while tapping it with a paw. She is not fooled by the laser pointer. The fishing pole must be high in the air so she can jump for it.
Her favorite self game is to jump/run up the wall as high as she can while uttering her war cry(a trill). Usually at some ungodly hour of the morning.
The dogs will bring a toy to us and give a “soulful stare”.
Rocco, our African Grey, will fly over and demand attention.
Q’itih will either toss her red mousy in the air repeatedly, or sit and trill while looking around for the laser dot.
See this thread:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=816179
Hermes will knock your newspaper down, or claw at your book, or sit on the floor and stare balefully at you.
Or he might bring over the thing he wants you to throw and drop it at your feet. Or drag his balloon over, or the “cat’s meow” thing.
Hestia will sit in the bedroom and meow loudly for the laser pointer.
My dog is pretty typical of the body language in this article
see
Pose number 8
Both of ours do the same, or just drop the toy in the nearest lap and stare expectantly.
I’d sometimes do this pose to my dogs, and they’d instantly want to play.
Mikko will run around like a knucklehead and then dive at my feet. If I throw a toy, then he’s off with joy to murder it.
My kitty Harley will beg by standing on his hind legs. Sometimes he’ll punch the with his front paws for emphasis. It looks like he’s boxing. It’s the cutest thing. My other kitty Twig is self-entertaining and does a lot of tearing around, but occasionally she’ll humor us and play with a ball or the laser pointer.
We just acquired three “rescues” from the Oregon Humane Society(Tesla, Mr. Puma Man aka Pooh, and Stripey Joe), and while the latter two aren’t much into playing yet Tesla, while he is being petted, will suddenly roll over and wrap his paws and feet around my arm and bite my hand softly and freeze, waiting to see how I’ll respond. I’ll usually yell out “Fight!” and pretend to pull away, and he’ll set to killing the evil arm, never breaking the skin.
Text. Stupid dogs.
I’ve had German Shepherd dogs almost all my life.
Usually, when they want to play, they’ll “gently” alert me by jumping in my lap or slamming me into a wall.
Don’t get me wrong, I like to keep my dogs well-trained but they know when they want to play, it’s “fun time”.
Mysti the Husky X Border Collie will paw at you when she’s ready to go for a walk or run in the pasture.
Kieber the Dachshund X Chihuahua X Rat Terrier will bark, growl, or whine if he wants you to throw his ball for the millionth time.:smack: If that doesn’t work he’ll give you the “Cute Anime Doggie” eyes. I swear he can make the size of his eyes bigger when he wants something.
Not to play, but to talk a walk. Reggie, the boxer/black mouth cur, will stare at me ominously and wag his tail in anticipation. Lita, the border collie, will smile and breathe heavily. If I try to ignore them, Reggie will honk or whimper and Lita will breathe heavier, like an obscene phone caller.
My last dog who was a standard poodle would stand in front of the TV with his squeaky toy when I was watching Brian Williams and squeak his toy until I played with him. If I was on the floor doing exercise he would think I was there to play with him and start squeaking his toy near my feet. If I didn’t play with him my hearing dog would put his toy right next to my ear then start squeaking it and say now can you hear it! LOL! I don’t think he thought very much of Brian Williams b/c he stood in front of him a lot. The dog I have will bring a toy to and once I throw it for him I end up going to get. My dog like to play with sticks more.
If I’m sitting at the desk or on the couch, Cinnamon will bring his ball and press it against the side of my leg.
Then, of course, when I go to take the ball to throw it for him, he’ll snatch it away…
