BH110 Dealing with the Bogeyman: Helping Reactive and Fearful Dogs - The Play Way!

This is Amy's signature Play Way class!

If your dog feels fine at home but struggles once the world gets involved, you are not alone. Barking or lunging on walks, freezing or scanning in new places, or just seeming generally stressed are all signs that your dog is overwhelmed and needs help.

The Play Way is my signature class and the work I am best known for. I developed it through years of working with fearful, reactive, and sensitive dogs, and with the people who love them and who are stressed themselves! It uses Therapeutic Social Play to help dogs learn how to take in their world and know that it is safe, rather than starting from a place of escape or defense. Play Way builds your dog's optimism, and the relaxation that supports it.

At its heart, this class is about learning to listen. Play is how we learn to hear what a dog is saying, how to respond clearly, and how to share an interaction without taking over. When that kind of play is easy and available, with your dog leading, you can then feel very easily when things are going well. When they are not, the change in their play tells you something important has shifted, often before bigger behaviors show up.

In this class, play is not about distraction or getting dogs hyped up. It is a calm, low-pressure, silly interaction that helps dogs stay under threshold, notice what is happening around them, and recover more easily. Over time, many dogs move through familiar challenges like walks, training, or new environments with less tension and more curiosity.

For the people, this class offers something just as important. You will learn some of the most effective entry points for creating change for your dog, by understanding where they are emotionally and what they can handle in that moment. Instead of guessing or reacting after things fall apart, you will have clearer information and more options.

This course is designed for pet dogs navigating everyday challenges, sport and performance dogs who need a solid emotional foundation, and everyone in between. If you have heard about the Play Way and wondered how getting silly can be therapeutic, this is that class. And yes, play is magic.

Gold level participants will be personally coached on how to work through their individual issues. You'll spend the first half of class learning or improving your therapeutic social play so he can relax and have fun, and then for the remainder of the class, you'll learn how to apply that to your dog's situation through the skills of Look and Dismiss. Your dog will learn to look at his triggers in a new way, and for as long as he wants, which sets this system apart! This level is ideal if you need plenty of support getting a play relationship going, and you will learn play vocabulary, the structure of conversation, how to take turns, and when to let your dog lead.

To gain the most value from this class, all students should commit the time to reading the advice given to several Gold level students throughout the class in order to create a workable plan for their own dogs. Many times, the gem you need for your own dog will be in my response to a different student, and I do write gold feedback with the entire class in mind.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION, please read all details:

This class has special enrollment for gold. To get these instructions, you must email Dr. Cook and stipulate that you understand that the class focuses on social play as therapy, and that the issue you are hoping to address is not one involving aggression toward the owner or other family members, in-home dog-dog aggression issues, noise sensitivity, or resource guarding. The enrollment request should only be made between terms, so after the currently-running term ends (usually the 15th), but best before the 22nd, when registration opens, you should email [email protected] and request enrollment information, stating that you've read the above.

Your best request windows:
March 14th to March 21st, since enrollment will open on March 22nd for the April term
July 14 to July 21st for the August term
November 14th to November 21st for the December term.

You'll be given special link to register with, but that does not guarantee you a spot in the class. It may narrow the pool of potential students, but you still should be there when enrollment opens to try for a gold spot. Having the link does not mean you have a spot.

If the class isn't sold out you can certainly email after the 22nd, so don't hesitate to ask.

If you have a question about the class and whether you should take it, you may email any time with those questions.

NOTE: This course is for dogs who either shut down or stress up when out and about or who have a specific stress issue that affects an aspect of their lives. If your dog only has issues in the performance ring, the Ring Confidence class the one you want, rather than this one! Feel free to send an email to [email protected] for clarification on which class is the best option for you.

Teaching Approach

This class is forum-focused. Lectures will be released in blocks of related information, front-loaded more in the beginning of class than at the end, rather than weekly. From there, all guidance is in the gold and silver forums, and students are strongly encouraged to follow along with the teaching there. All modifications and all further development of the material happens there, and as this is a concept-heavy class, that is where your essential learning is likely to be. All teaching in this class is written or visual, and there is no audio or voice-over material. Since the skills in this class are not straightforward, much is explained through analogy, and trial and error (though there are no errors!) is emphasized. We learn by doing, and then by doing again, and then again, making intuitive adjustments along the way (with my help and analysis!). This is not a typical class where skill A is followed by skill B, so know ahead of time that the learning will not be linear, nor identical for everyone, nor recipe-based. We deal in concepts that require exploration and thought and independent application.

This class will have a Teaching Assistant (TA) available study group to help the Bronze and Silver students! Directions for joining can be found in the classroom after you register.