Play+ | The Process Philosophy of Play Podcast

About Play+ | The Process Philosophy of Play Podcast

Coupled Play through Common Sense Realism and Direct Perception. playplus.substack.com (https://playplus.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Ron Watson

Category

society & culture · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 May 2025

Latest episode

8 Oct 2025

Latest episodes

12 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2025

   On Being Present: Exploring the Solution Space Part 1

   I break down why most of my work with dogs isn’t building behaviors but exploring the solution space (https://playplus.substack.com/p/on-being-present-exploring-the-solution)—where achievement and earned opportunities become intrinsically motivating rather than cookie-dependent. You’ll learn how Initiative Transfers (https://playplus.substack.com/i/163612407/initiative-transfers-are-an-open-secret-of-missed-opportunity) (taking turns, passing the ball) structure every interaction whether you acknowledge them or not, why most engagement problems stem from poor initiative transfers, and how initiative draws gaze and attention (https://playplus.substack.com/i/163612407/consequent-gaze-shaping). The piece covers how markers, cues, triggers, and consequences all transfer or maintain initiative, and why knowing who has the ball determines where the game happens. This introduces the Next-Now structure (https://playplus.substack.com/i/163612407/poised-for-opportunity) (proposition versus emergence) and explains how gaze control lets you telegraph what’s coming by being aware rather than watching the dog. When you understand consequent opportunity, initiative transfers, and gaze shaping, you become poised to read releases and create flowing play rather than just training behaviors. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

2. 

   8 Oct 2025

   On Being Present: Exploring the Solution Space Part 2

   I explore prospective reading (https://playplus.substack.com/i/163623104/prospective-reading-following-the-future)—using perceptual information that specifies future states to stay ahead of the action—and why handlers need to develop the same awareness skills dogs naturally use for coupling. You’ll learn how awareness precedes and governs attention (rather than the reverse), why attention collapses awareness and shrinks your ability to pick up relevant information, and how shared subjective aims enable harmonized performance. The piece distinguishes training (mental/operant work in the Now phase) from handling (physical/emergent work in the Next phase where play actually happens). (https://playplus.substack.com/i/163623104/oriented-by-action-handling-vs-training) I cover how action creates information (https://playplus.substack.com/i/163623104/action-creates-information), why handlers move to create dynamic positional relationships while trainers just move their hands, and how marking moments of coupling in flow creates shared understanding. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

3. 

   7 Oct 2025

   PLAY+ Podcast - Flow Theory Part 1 | Tuning Engagement by Aiming for Flow

   I break down Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory (https://playplus.substack.com/p/play-flow-theory-tuning-engagement)—the four requirements (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165444610/requirements-of-flow-physical) and four feelings (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165444610/feelings-of-flow-mental)—showing how they map onto PLAY+’s physical-mental dipolar structure and why they naturally emerge from enriched marking and intentional play. You’ll learn how to use the Flow map to diagnose your dog’s subjective tone (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165444610/translating-the-map-to-play) (bored, anxious, worried, aroused, control, relaxed, apathy, or flow), then aim toward the flow channel (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165444610/the-flow-channel) by adjusting physical challenge or mental skill demands. The piece covers flow ratios (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165444610/mental-and-physical-flow-ratios-steering-subjective-tone)—3:1 for physical achievement, 1:3 for mental exploration—as steering mechanisms for tone. This is practical Flow Theory: read the dog, plop them on the map, adjust what you’re doing to move toward flow. No protocols, no scripts—just real-time tuning of the classical conditioned state through awareness of challenge-skill balance and intentional handling. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

4. 

   6 Oct 2025

   PLAY+ Podcast - Flow Theory Part 2 | The Next Now Cycle & Flow Correspondence

   I break down the dipolar structure of play (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165599166/what-is-the-next-now-cycle)—Now as the static proposition (cue-aporia-trigger) where handlers have initiative, and Next as emergent interaction where dogs lead and handlers must become opportunity. You’ll learn why engagement problems are really Next phase problems, how Next always precedes Now (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165599166/next-always-precedes-now) (you enter training through emergent interaction, not static setup), and why traditional training only covers half the cycle. The piece maps Flow Theory requirements onto the cycle (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165599166/flow-theory-overlay)—Clear Goals and Matched Challenge happen in Now, while Immediate Feedback and Merged Action-Awareness happen in Next. I use footage from a liquid CupCake disc session (https://playplus.substack.com/i/165599166/example-project-liquid-cupcake) to show how reading, coupling, and enriched marking enable flow through running vaults that can’t be drilled as studio tricks. This covers the pulse of play that makes cooperative performance possible—the infinite loop of proposition and emergence that creates genuine teamwork. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

5. 

   6 Oct 2025

   PLAY+ Podcast - Flow Theory Part 4 | Enriched Marking as Flow Modulation

   I break down the four PLAY+ markers—Inceptive, Expectant, Prospective, and Terminal—showing how each serves distinct functions beyond traditional operant conditioning. You’ll learn how Inceptive Markers highlight coupling moments without breaking flow, how Expectant Markers build drama and leverage expectancy, how Prospective Markers enable dogs to finish skills with intent toward the next action, and why Terminal Markers actually terminate flow. The piece covers how enriched marking provides the mini-goals and achievements that bolster subjective tone while giving handlers granular control over rhythm, pacing, and initiative transfers during complex chains. Whether you’re working disc sequences or building cooperative chains, this explains how marker timing and intent shape what both you and your dog actually know about skilled performance. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

6. 

   5 Oct 2025

   PLAY+ Podcast - The Subjective Aim in Play+

   Why does your dog do what they do? “For the cookie” hides an entire layer of reality. This episode explores Subjective Aim—what you and your dog are actually trying to accomplish—and why misaligned aims create most training problems. I break down how synthetic success fools us into thinking we’re aligned, why “because that’s where the cookies happen” dismisses your dog’s actual decision-making, and how the process layer where we ask “what are we doing and why?” has been ignored by behaviorism. When your dog shares your purpose instead of just performing for rewards, they become a genuine teammate who knows what play to make. Feat: CupCake, King, and LuLu Du This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

7. 

   5 Oct 2025

   PLAY+ Podcast - Flow Theory Part 5 | Attuned Cuing: Guiding Flow & Tone

   I break down the Cue-Trigger process, why the pause matters for controlling energy and flow, and how attuned cuing enables prospective control—your dog staying ahead of the action instead of just reacting. You’ll learn why matching your markers to your dog’s subjective tone matters, how awareness harnesses attention for seamless coordination, and the mechanics of split-second teamwork. MerkiDu, Ken2, and CupCake provide live accompaniment throughout. Whether you’re in dog sports or working on everyday cooperation, this covers the temporal and affective precision that makes genuine play possible. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

8. 

   1 Oct 2025

   PLAY+ Podcast - Black Boxes of Meaning | Reinforcement: What Makes it Work and How it Hides Understanding

   I crack open Reinforcement - the black box hiding nine intrinsic properties that create meaning between dog and handler. You’ll discover why high-value treats can punish behavior, how consistency kills motivation, and what your dog actually experiences beyond simple stimulus-response. These properties reveal agency, understanding, and partnership that behaviorism systematically obscures. By the end, you’ll understand why PLAY+ treats reinforcement as a measurement of what happened, not a thing you give - and why that distinction changes everything. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

9. 

   26 Sept 2025

   Black Boxes of Meaning | Opening Black Boxes of Training to Reveal Play and Flow.

   Here’s an audio rendition of the Black Boxes of Meaning series (https://playplus.substack.com/p/black-boxes-of-meaning-how-simple). This is the first 5 chapters of my recent blog series over on Substack read by yours truly. This lays out the background required to actually see what’s happening with the PLAY+ Primal Games. The Primal Games are simple, easy, and fun, but if you’re not prepared, you’ll only see what you already know how to do. That’s been a stumbling block for releasing PLAY+: from the outside, they can look like ordinary drills or “good training you could do faster.”] But the magic of the Primal Games isn’t in the behaviors. It’s in the hidden skills they disclose; the elemental capacities that make all behaviors possible. These skills have always been there, black-boxed as “just training,” hiding in plain sight. Black Boxes of Meaning is a six-part series uncovering how Behaviorism and traditional training hide meaning inside protocols, jargon, and vague terms like “drive” or “bond.” These closures simplify application but obscure cooperation and flow. PLAY+ cracks the boxes open. Using First Principles, Enriched Marking, Primal Games, Initiative Transfers, and the Next Now Cycle, PLAY+ discloses process, reveals opportunity, and makes Flow a first principle of training. The series culminates by contrasting closed black boxes with the open, lived reality of play. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

10. 

    17 Jun 2025

    Audio: PLAY+ Flow Theory Part 1 | Tuning Engagement by Aiming for Flow

    Here’s an audio version of the first piece in the PLAY+ Flow Theory series. Check it out in text and images here: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

11. 

    5 Jun 2025

    Handler Facilitated, Coupled Movement

    Flatwork in disc dog freestyle is a dynamic form of coupling. Dog and handler adopt and maintain a coupled relationship of team movement. This coupled relationship is often hidden or overwhelmed by the “flatwork maneuver”, the interpretation of flatwork as a trick or series of tricks: Front Cross, Rear Cross (Squib), Flank, and Pass. Coupling is not well understood in general, and it’s absolutely critical in Flatwork. Coupled movement is the very definition of Flatwork. In the graphic jam below, you can see this clearly. Coupled with What? The general sense from the lay person is that the dog is coupled with the disc. This isn’t the case, or is not always the case. If your dog is coupling with the disc alone, your Flatwork is gonna be awkward or an adventure. Loot is coupled with me. The disc is a connection point, but it’s my body, position, and pressure and my relationship to the environment that my dog is actually coupling with. A handler that thinks the dog is only chasing the disc is likely to teach the dog to only chase the disc; intent matters. A handler who thinks the dog is following the handler is likely to teach the dog to follow the handler. The disc is the hook, not the bait. Coupling Isn’t a Behavior, It’s a Skill Behaviors and Skills are different critters. All Skills are behaviors, but not all behaviors are Skills. To remedy this category error confusion, PLAY+ uses the term “Action” for simple, uncoupled behaviors. Skills are Actions that can be or have been adapted to an actual opportunity in the real world. Coupling is not a thing. On the disc field, the behaviors we do are not things, they are events that feature many Actions, in relation and with intent. Coupling is a process. Turning a process into a thing seems to make it easy to understand, but that understanding is only linguistic and falls apart when we take it to the field. We think the dog “knows” it; we know they know it. They can do it, so why is it not happening? The simple answer is they don’t know how to do it in this situation. They lack the ability to couple the Actions to the environment–they lack the Skill to adapt the Actions to this particular opportunity. Set Up Moves in PLAY+ In PLAY+ (and in PVybe disc dog stuff since 2006), Set Up Moves are coupled movements; the dog needs to do it with the handler, not just bust out the move on their own. Set Up Moves create timing and a reliable position, and if you’re doing them well they look cool and create drama. If we treat them like behaviors–I cues it and the dog do’s it, they may be reliable but the handler has to follow closely and jump in as the behavior is going down in order to get the timing right. This is not team behavior. The dog is doing an action and the handler is on the hook to apply skill to find the point of coupling and make the Set Up Move function properly. The dog has responsibilities here. In order for there to be a team, the dog also needs to couple with the handler, right? When I teach Set Up Moves (https://pvybe.com/theory/play-flow-foundation-the-set-up-move-drill-and-3-keys-to-flow/), the majority of my focus is this coupled relationship. Teaching a dog to Go Around and go Through are super easy, I can do it with a well articulated flash of the disc that triggers prey drive and the dog can perform the action. But to do it as a Skill, for it to be fully usable on the field, the dog has to follow me–to be coupled with the handler. Want Skills? Focus on Coupling PLAY+ is focused on coupling because when working with dogs we’re not working with “behaviors” or simple, uncoupled Actions. We’re working with Skills because dog and handler have to adapt our actions to fit the opportunity in front of us. Doing things is not the hard part of working with dogs. Adapting to things fit is the hard part. Failure to attend to coupling and to the complex, relational nature of “behaviors” is a leading cause of frustration and poor cooperative performance in dog training. PLAY+ remedies that. Join my classes by becoming a Patron of Pawsitive Vybe (https://patreon.com/pvybe) - or join the substack here – it is embarrassingly cheap. Stay tuned here... This place is gonna drop some serious content even for freebie-friends, so subscribe in order to keep up with the happenings & opportunities to play.Peace & Happy Jamming! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

12. 

    12 May 2025

    This-Wait...Next! With LuLu

    Watching this and it just looks like good dog training. Not great, maybe not even good. I’m sure you could “get it” faster. But get what? What exactly did you see here? Was it what we did? Did you see what we were trying to do? What were we trying to do anyway? Questions Come Before Answers It’s true, LuLu Du and I were working the pedestal. She Gave Attention. We jumped the gap. I told her Off, and we did it again. That’s what happened. Is that all that happened? Watch again… it should take you 2 seconds to see the question, then another 2 before there was an answer, then a yes-wait… at 5 seconds and another question. From 7-9 seconds there was a question, that resolved into gap jump that LuLu was unsure of. I gave her the answer. No more questions really, unless you want to get pedantic or clinical about it – it’s questions as far down as answers and one step lower. I can get the dog on the pedestal and give them cookies, that’s pretty easy. I can get a bunch of reps, telling the dog that the Answer is ‘C’. But if I make it happen, the dog didn’t learn it, the dog was either handled into it or took a guess. It will take many reps for each with tons of cookies to learn it. Enter the Answer Dog Knowing the answer or being able to do the thing is not learning, and knowing the answer does not demonstrate skill. It simply means you know the answer is ‘C’ or that you can do the thing. The Answer Dog can do the thing. They’re so so sure of the answer they can do the thing before the handler even asks. Boom-Pow! The dog is on the 2nd pedestal. Dog eats the cookie Boom-Pow! dog is on-the-first-on-the-second pedestal. Perhaps you can relate? Inhibition and cooperative engagement is a skill, it must be learned. You can’t do it for the dog. The dog must learn to hear the question before giving an answer in oder to work or cooperatively play with the handler. Bringing the Dog Into the Process What I’m doing with LuLu here is bringing her in on the process of Play. And this is play, it’s a Primal Game (https://pvybe.notion.site/Primal-Games-d4723c842ceb4b6b9337ad8bad47bf8a?pvs=4). PLAY+ Primal Games highlight the principles of Play. The First Principles of Play. And I mean play in general; applicable to dogs, people, sports teams, etc. To do the thing, like to know it, and do it with the handler, on cue, the dog needs: Awareness, Attention, Intention (Cue), and a Trigger. If you have those things from the dog, you have the Initiative. The Wait Cue and Attention (Eye Contact) as behaviors may or may not communicate those first principles to the dog. Odds are the handler is telling the dog,”the Answer is C, kid,” on at least one of these. At least one of these probably gives (or has given) all handlers fits or is a nagging issue. Bringing the dog into the process is the answer to the question you didn’t know you had cuz you were too busy doing it. Trigger, Initiative Transfer, and What’s Next? This-Wait…Next! (https://pvybe.notion.site/Primal-Games-d4723c842ceb4b6b9337ad8bad47bf8a?pvs=4), the game we’re playing here is riffing off of: Where is the Trigger? The Fount of Skill The Primal Game that introduces the Cue-Trigger process: the cue creates the Awareness of an imminent Trigger, all we have to do is find it. The gap between the Cue and the Trigger affords dog and handler Awareness and Intention. All we have left is to find that Trigger. The dog looks for it – paying attention, not giving it. Paying attention means you’re aware. Giving Attention means you’re already engaged. Attention is a behavior, an Action in PLAY+ and giving it happens. The intentional use of Attention within a given situation is a Skill. A Skill is an action or behavior adapted to fit the environment or opportunity. If you and your dog are doing things in multiple situations, those things are not behaviors, they’re Skills - adapted to fit. When LuLu hears the Cue when she gives Attention, she reads the situation and waits for the Trigger. This read is a question, my Trigger is the answer. The Trigger Process is the ground of intentional Skill and cooperative work. Initiative Transfers – The Essence of Teamwork Think about basketball or any team sport. The game starts with a question, usually about Initiative (https://gododogstuff.com/play-glossary/#i). A Face Off is a jump or a scuffle for initiative The one who has the initiative controls the ball. Either by being the Offense and deciding where and when the play will happen, or by the defense who may force the offense to cough up the ball. The “aggressor” is one way to look at it, but that’s not quite right. It’s the one who has the opportunity to act or take charge. LuLu is learning what Initiative is about while playing This-Wait…Next! In addition to all the stuff you guys thought LuLu and I were working on above, she was learning how to follow me, to give me the Initiative. She passes it to me, like a ball when she hears,”Wait…” or,”Yes!” with no cookie (Expectant Marker (https://gododogstuff.com/play-glossary/#d)). Expectant Marker Maintains Handler Initiative Yes followed by a pregnant pause elicits a question in the form of eye contact. That’s because when I give the marker and give no cookie, I have the initiative. I have the ball. The defense has to look at me. Boom! Attention paid, not given. Initiative is what Awareness uncovers, or discloses to the dog while cooperating with their handler. The, “Yes-Wait!” is an Expectant Marker. A cue, “Through!” freeze… is too. The handler reserves the right to give the cooke whenever they feel like. Not to say you should do that, or do it often, but you reserve the right. We give the marker for asynchronous timing – you got 2 seconds before having to cough up a cookie. Taking your time creates drama, value, and the practical application of a Wait. Positive Marker Gives Initiative to the Dog The Terminal Marker is a normal Positive Marker followed by prompt discrete cookie or release from duration hands initiative to the dog. When I toss the cookie it’s all LuLu Du. I’m out, at least according to her, I am. If I buy that and watch my pretty dog I’m in trouble. When I toss the cookie the Play emerges. What’s Next? The Next Now Cycle is a cyclical pulse of play. Now is the part where we do the thing, we shoot/snap/pass the ball. Next is emergent interaction; the rebound/the play/the team movement – all of which can’t be planned and isn’t even a thing, it’s a happening or an opportunity. What’s Next? Is a Primal Game that is unveiled during This-Wait... Next! It is a series of Initiative Transfers: a transfer of initiative to LuLu, after she gets off the pedestal, followed by me reading the information from the environment, so I know where, when, and how to wrangle the initiative back from her by becoming an opportunity or she’s gonna go jump straight up on the 2nd pedestal because she already knows the answer. Yet she does not know the process. Primal Games of PLAY+ | Embodied Play Experiences What’s Next? is the formal Primal Game for the handler, but the game we watched LuLu do IS What’s Next? for the dog in an embodied play experience fashion. We as handler’s miss this, much like y’all missed what was actually going on in this video–because we know what we’re doing, and we’re too busy doing it to pay attention (demonstrate Awareness) to the process. All of the PLAY+ Primal Games have been designed to disclose information to dog and handler and ask both to look to the shared environment and to co-create opportunity for and through play. There are 8 games in total and they nest together to afford exploration of the solution space to shape and develop not simple decoupled behaviors, but intentional Actions adapted to fit this very opportunity as Skills. Join my classes by becoming a Patron of Pawsitive Vybe (https://patreon.com/pvybe) - it is embarrassingly cheap. Stay tuned here. This place is gonna go pay to play for special goodies too, so subscribe in order to keep up with the happenings & opportunities to play. Peace & Happy Jamming! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playplus.substack.com/subscribe (https://playplus.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2)

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