Rose is learning to play

[Emmaloo]

It's so goofy and so cute! Our current "game" is that I scratch her butt and she curls around in a C with her mouth wide open, at which point, I alternate butt-scratches and nose-boops. She curls around in one direction and then the other, and periodically interrupts to rub her face back & forth across the couch pillows. Sometimes the face-runs wind up with her partially upside down, waving a foot in the air for tummy rubs. All, of course, with her mouth wide open in a silly grin.

[bendog]

Fantastic news.

We also have a dog that never played and is just starting to and honestly my heart nearly burst in two when she brought me a toy to play tug!

Well done

[Emmaloo]

It's amazing stuff, isn't it, Bendog? Imagine what these guys have gone through, and just for them to trust us to do things like scratch their ears is nothing short of a miracle, but when they start to do normal dog things... wow. Just wow. It's hard to explain to someone with a "normal" dog. My Maisie is from a shelter, too, but clearly the people who gave her up loved her because she's always assumed that the primary function of people was to give her love and treats.

[WufWuf]

I too have a shelter dog who didn't know how to play and its such a great feeling when they start to get it. I'll still grin from ear to ear when Honey goes to her toy pile and picks out something to play with.

This could be waaayy off but I'll try to desribe something Honey loves as it might work for Rose.

Honey really loves gettin toweled dry but more then that she loooves having her face "scrumpled" with a soft cloth/towel. I put the cloth/towel over her whole head and my whole hand over the towel and kind of rub it back and forth. She'll wave her face from side to side with her mouth open and sort of snort as she does it.

This is one of her favorite things but she does love to be rubbed, touched and groomed so if Rose isn't as into physical contact this would not suit her and with her history I'd hate to set her back at all.

The reason I'm mentioning it is you said she takes breaks to rub her face on the couch pillows so I thought it might suggest that she would enjoy this little "game" but you seem in tune with Rose so I'm guessing you'll know just from reading this if it's something she'd enjoy or not!