While working on an upcoming article, I had the opportunity to interview the new training manager at the Humane Society of Boulder Valley (where we adopted Lilly) Lindsay Wood. She earned her M.A in animal behavior from Hunter College in New York. And, she shared some interesting information about the lifelong play levels of male and female dogs.
Essentially, she said that research shows that male dogs are more likely to remain playful and socially interested in playing with other dogs throughout their life than female dogs.
In some cases, apparently, female dogs reach “social maturity” and lose interest (and tolerance) for playing with other dogs.
That, in a nutshell, is what happened to Lilly. I’ve since learned it’s pretty common in female border collies. They go along fine as youngsters, then something changes, and they suffer no fools (as my Gram used to say).
It came as a real shock to me, but when I’d tell people that it felt like Lilly changed overnight at around 2 and a half, experienced BC people were like “Yep. That happens.” I wonder if I could have prevented it had I known … but maybe not.
As a small girl, at the dog park, it would take a lot to really get Lilly into a rousing game of chase or wrestle. She was quite shy, as you know, and she mostly stuck close to me. But, she was fine with other dogs swinging by for quick visits, racing by in play, etc.
Now, this doesn’t mean that all adult female dogs will show this pattern, but it’s statistically more likely than in males. It also doesn’t mean that dogs like Lilly don’t LOVE playing with the dogs they live with. Lilly and Ginko are Best BEST friends. They adore one another. Sure, he puts his foot down sometimes. And, she sasses him on occasion, but they play very well together. They chase. They wrestle. They tug.
And, Lilly does have some dog friends that she’ll play with at home, when they visit. BUT, she no longer thinks the dog park is even remotely funny.
I know that some people prefer one gender over another. We’ve always had one of each. It works well for us. However, if you really want a dog that’s more likely to be playful longterm, it seems that data says … go with a male.
That’s a good point. Another spot of often undiagnosed pain is in the mouth. I interviewed a veterinary dentist recently who told me that when a dog has an abscess that suddenly becomes an emergency it’s probably been hurting for at least a year or more.
My experience has been that dogs that are played with throughout their lives tend to remain playful–as long as they don’t have arthritis pain. I think there are way too many dogs out there who aren’t treated for arthritis pain because they don’t whimper or yelp, they just slowly become less and less willing to move much. And people assume that the dog is getting old or “lazy”.