Play+ Information Station | Why Actions & Skills?

Play+ represents a dynamic framework designed to foster intentional cooperative play between handlers and their dogs. Central to its philosophy is the distinction between “actions” and “skills” while deliberately avoiding the use of “behaviors.” This document serves as a resource to clarify terminology and provide actionable insights for Play+ practitioners.

Core Concepts

Actions vs. Skills

Actions: Discrete, uncoupled units of movement or response, often context-specific and spontaneous.
Skills: Informed, intentional actions that incorporate environmental input and are shaped by the interplay of awareness and experience.
Skills are made of Actions intentionally adapted (coupled) to fit the environment. This is how Opportunity | Expectancy | Achievement is experienced and navigated.

Understanding Behaviors

The term “behavior” can refer to different elements depending on the context:
- A behavior can be as simple as a reflexive action like an eye blink or a more complex physical movement like sitting.
- On a broader level, behavior can also represent an achieved skill or an intentional action refined through practice.
- It also means anything that can be done
Behaviors are made of behaviors. This is how behavior is understood. Structured, purposeful actions are not easily discriminated from simple base actions and component behaviors.

In Play+, Skills are constructed from Actions coupled with the environment. This coupling transforms discrete actions into dynamic, functional skills, delivering clarity to dog and handler as to how discrete elements of play come together into cohesive, intentional outcomes.

Key Framework Elements

Enriched Marking

Inceptive Marking: Marks the moment of coupling with an affordance for action: between handler & dog, dog & pedestal, and any shift in coupling. Inceptive Markers capture the decisions & processes that turn Actions into Skills. It is the rhythm of achievement and connection.
Expectant Marking: Sets the stage for potential opportunities, creating expectancy and enabling fluid recalibration.
Coupling as Opportunity: Marking moments of coupling highlights when actions adept to skills and when opportunities are seized in the play environment turns coupling into an Opportunity.

Initiative Transfer

Dynamic leadership exchange that fuels the rhythm of “Now” and “Next.”
Effective initiative transfer ensures optimal engagement, preventing stagnation and fostering continuous interaction.

Awareness and Attention

Awareness: The foundation for recognizing opportunities and enabling informed action.
Attention: Springs from awareness and focuses effort, serving as a bridge to actionable insights.
Dynamically coupled awareness and attention ensure the handler and dog remain attuned to each other and the environment.

Practical Applications

Flow in Play

Immediate Feedback: Critical for maintaining focus and ensuring clarity in communication.
Clear Goals: Goals should be apparent, with mini-goals providing incremental progress.
Challenge-Skill Matching: Adjust play to align with the dog’s capabilities, balancing difficulty to maintain engagement.

Handler-Dog Dynamics

Team Affordances: Recognize and utilize the unique capabilities and perspectives of both handler and dog.
Positioning and Targeting: Understand spatial dynamics to optimize cooperative actions.
Triggers: Separate cues from triggers to clarify intention and timing.

Examples and Exercises

Decoupled Performance, Constraints, Enabling Constraints

Decouple the Skill from standard performance and isolate key moments or new ways to couple.
- Toss & Fetch – Flipping the Field: completely decouples the skills involved in Toss n Fetch from the on-field, competitive performance. This affords training and the creation of a variety of challenges.
- Isolate the Trick From the Sequence: Often easier said than done, but pulling a trick out of the sequence is decoupling it.
- Simpler skills can fill gaps between challenges: Replace non-critical aspects of performance with simpler, more bulletproof options that will not require extreme focus and are more likely to be successful.
Use constraints to challenge the Skill:
- put a jump bar on the ground where the dog normally takes off to change the collection point
- don’t do the flip before the Vault, do it as a stand alone Studio Trick
Use Enabling Constraints:
- set up a barrier or work next to a wall to ensure the dog | handler | team cannot get out of position.
- place the jump bar on the ground in a spot that makes a leap happen

Small-Sided Games

Emphasize simplicity and fluidity to practice coupling and connection in a low stakes environment.
Allow for embodied experiences of picking up and using relevant information from the environment.
Emergent, open ended learning.
Examples: Primal Games, forms, bitework games, flatwork patterns, mini-games and Jam in a Flash.

Initiative Development

Practice dismissal and waiting to build drive and anticipation.
Use enriched markers to encourage curiosity and engagement.
Understand the dialogue that fosters the Subjective Aim and streamline the process from affordance recognition to actualized Skills.

Conclusion

Play+ emphasizes a dynamic interplay of actions, skills, awareness, and intentionality. By embracing these principles, practitioners can cultivate an enriched play environment that fosters deeper connection and purposeful engagement with their dogs. The focus on flexibility, clarity, and cooperative adaptation ensures that play remains joyful, meaningful, and impactful for both handler and dog.