One of the most important things puppies learn is bite inhibition. This actually applies to their relationship with us, too when dogs play with their guardian it helps to build a stronger relationship. The social skills learned in puppy play help them to have good social relationships with other dogs when they are older.

In turn this can help them regulate their stress response when tricky things happen, so that they are more resilient.

Play can help puppies learn how to deal with unexpected things happening such as when they get knocked over. While there’s a lot we still don’t understand about play, it seems that play is important for learning both social skills (how to behave with other dogs) and motor skills (how to move their bodies) (Sommerville et al, 2017). But play serves a number of important roles. Why do puppies play? The short answer is because it's fun. After around 8 or 9 weeks, the urge to play begins to drop off, although they will still be very playful. In fact, from 3 weeks of age puppies spend a lot of time playing with their fellow pups. Puppies learn a lot in those early weeks while they are still with their mom and littermates. Here’s why puppy play is an important part of puppy class. But only around 70% of puppy classes include play (Cutler et al, 2017). Puppy class is a great way to get some socialization. But it’s up to you to build on that early socialization, because the sensitive period continues until about 12-14 weeks. When you bring them home at about 8 weeks, the breeder will have already done some socialization (provided you picked a responsible breeder).

Puppies love to play