Maintaining mental and physical health is necessary if we are to get through these challenging times and keep our sanity, for both humans and dogs. Three fun teaching games to help you stay active at home:
1. Find-It Game: Put aside a portion of the food you would typically feed your dog from their morning and evening feeding.
- Place your dog in a “Stay,”
- Take some of the food (or treat) portion and hide them around the house.
- Release your dog (whatever cue you use just be consistent and use it every time you play this game, EG, “Break – Release – Done,” etc.).
- Enjoy watching your dog develop its scent skills to search the house.
2. Hide-N-Seek Game: Place your dog in a “Stay.”
- Walk away and hide in another room,
- then call your dog (“Name” and “Come!” in upbeat voice) and see how long it takes them to find you.
- Once the dog finds you have a big praise party (lots of lovin’ – treats if you like), then repeat the game one or two more times.
3. Rapid-Fire Game: Pick any combination of three or four commands that your dog likes to do (or cues you want to refine in your dog) like “Sit/Down/Stand” or “Jump Up/Shake/Rollover.”
- Ramp up the excitement in your voice to get your dog’s energy up.
- Start in one area of your house and see how fast your dog can go through your list of cues.
- When you finish the round of three or four “cues,” have a big praise party (treats if you like).
- Then QUICKLY move to another part of the house, keep your energy high, and repeat using the SAME cues. Have a big praise party.
- Repeat three or four times in one training session. Your dog will love you for this workout without knowing that you are reinforcing their learning.
You can see the Rapid-Fire game in my Redwoods video, but you can easily do this in your home (just substitute your couch or bed for the picnic table).
I hope you like these few specialty games to keep you and your dog engaged and healthy, by strengthening your dog’s responsiveness in trying to please you.
Stay well and let me know how these work for you.
– Dan, doghearttraining.com