For this Intellectual Production I have decided to spend time watching and analyzing my new puppy, Juno. We picked up Juno in late May at the age of nine weeks and I was not prepared for just how much work that would be involved in training her to be something that could function in my life. I have read advice online, listened to the advice given to me by the breeder, and attended puppy training classes. Having read Huizinga’s and Caillois’ two articles I immediately saw the same connections between play and learning that all of the advice on puppy training had made.
One of the first things we were told about Juno was that as a puppy she would constantly be using her mouth, constantly biting the hands and legs of people she encountered. The breeder referred to this as ‘mouthing’ and was something all puppies do. We were not to discourage this behaviour as young puppies need to learn the strength of their bite. If she reaches out to bite our hand but it doesn’t hurt, we let her – once it starts to hurt, we yell “ow!” to make her stop. This would be the same behaviour if she were with her mother or her siblings – they would bite each other in play but if they bit too hard the other dark would yelp or snap at them. Huizinga identifies this behaviour in dogs when he says “[dogs] keep to the rule that you shall not bite, or not bite hard, your brother’s ear” (pg. 97). Through this type of play, the puppy is learning. |
Juno's first day coming to her new home
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I have been told at my puppy training class that, when done correctly, puppies view training as a type of game. They are rewarded with a treat when they get it right and denied the treat when they do not. Puppies also bond with their owners in this way and this bond is incredibly important in forming a strong relationship built on trust. While the puppy views this as play – it is in fact very important in terms of preparing her to be a dog that can function in society. This ‘play’ is serious work and Huizinga identifies this when he writes “[a]ccording to one theory play constitutes a training of the young creature for the serious work that life will demand later on. According to another it serves as an exercise in restraint needful to the individual” (pg. 97)
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For Juno, play isn’t always so structured, sometimes it is important for her to simply get out in the back yard and explore and this is when her play time becomes what Caillois would define as “[f]ree: in which playing is not obligatory; if it were, it would at once lose its attractive and joyous quality as diversion” (pg. 128). Juno bounces around the yard chasing insects and leaves of all sorts – she might quickly learn the difference between a moth and a wasp as a result of a sting. She bounces around the yard excitedly playing and learning about the world around her.
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The greatest challenge we have had with Juno is her penchant for chasing our two cats. Juno is a Eurasier and the breed can get on quite well with cats provided they are trained. For now, our house is divided with gates and doors so that Juno has 1½ floors and the cats have 1½ floors. The older of the two cats, Indigo, is quite possibly the best cat in existence and seems only mildly perturbed by the new addition to the family. He will bounce from counter to table to windowsill always keeping out of reach of Juno as she scampers around trying to get at him. On a few occasions Juno has succeeded in pinning him on the floor, but she does nothing to hurt him – she is clearly only playing. Caillois quotes another author when he writes “Hudson seems to have proved that a young animal ‘follows any object that is going away, and flees any approaching object’” (pg. 136).
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The video to the left was a chance encounter where the two cats had ventured into Juno's area of the house looking for food while I was sorting the recycling. I was able to keep Juno from chasing the cats utlizing the training she had learned through play. I managed to grab my phone to record it to show my girlfriend as this is far from the norm in terms of how Juno reacts to the cats but proof she was learning.
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What is made clear by my observations of Juno in the short time we have had with her combined with reading Huizinga’s and Caillois’ articles is just how important play is to learning. The ability to learn through play is such a basic part of our evolution that it was present before we were a species. How we utilize play in education is critical to improving schools today.