Puppy Games

[Cazwah]

Hey everyone! Yet another first-time-puppy-owner-question

Okay, so everything is going super well at the moment, Chesty is 10 weeks old yesterday. I want to know what your favourite games to play with your puppy are/were? I am running out of ideas of games to play with him when he's hyped up.

The games we already play are-

-- tug (still learning the rules don't play it too much)

-- follow me

-- basic obedience including a very cute roll over

-- occasionally 'find it', following a treat trail

Most of the time I find myself trying to teach him bite inhibition! Such strong teeth and jaws!! I'd like to find some games that didn't necessarily involve food as well...

Okay, hit me with your game ideas!!

[JudyG]

One I read on here was playing hide and seek i.e go to a different room in the house and call for your puppy. Give a reward when they come to you (doesn't need to be food but probably works better if it is!!)

[Cazwah]

Thanks for that, I'll give it a go this arvo.. might have to hide behind the couch though, as we've got a tiny apartment!

[romeomc]

I like to play the "which hand is the treat in" game - scroll down the link to see my Romeo doing it like a pro game video There's abit of training involved in the beginning but because there's food involved, they learn pretty fast!

[lillim]

One I read on here was playing hide and seek i.e go to a different room in the house and call for your puppy. Give a reward when they come to you (doesn't need to be food but probably works better if it is!!)

This is a great game, we use "stay" then hide, then "find" and the dog tears around the house looking for us.

[Cazwah]

Thanks guys! We played the 'which hand is the treat in?' game this afternoon, but will have to practice to get as good as Romeo! He's so good at it!!

[luvsdogs]

You can teach things like shake hands which leads to high 5 & wave.

Have 3 empty tins or flower pots & put a piece of food under one, shuffle around & get dog to find, something like the walnut shell game.

Go to an op shop or garage sale & get a toy spinning top &/or childs piano & teach touch.

[romeomc]

Romeo is greedy and gets good at whatever gets him some food! Sorry I know you asked for ideas WITHOUT food!

Have you tried fetch? Didn't see it listed! It's works great to burn off that energy.

Or maybe even using one toy and giving it a name and playing with it and then hiding it somewhere (obvious at first with no other toys around, then maybe peeking behind a pillow, then under a pillow, etc) and asking your pup to go find the toy (as a variation to finding humans)?

Or the "come" game? You and another person (or more even!) sit opposite each other some distance away (or in a circle) and take turns calling the pup to come - say "come" once then use lip smacking noises or clap your hands to get the pup's attention. Reward when the pup gets to the caller with a treat or with some playing/tugging if that's what the pup likes. The caller (and all other except the next person calling the pup) then crosses arms and looks up at the ceiling while the other person will call the pup to come. It's a great way to teach the cue "come" and work the pup's legs at the same time. You can increase the distance once the pup gets a hang of the game.

[Cazwah]

Thank you for all the great ideas! I had heard of that 'walnut' game but forgot about it, will definitely give it a go! We've started the shake hands thing, just getting him to paw our hand at the moment and click/treating for that. We've been doing lots of the 'come' game, Chestnut loves that one and gets a good run out of it. I'll try the hide the toy game next, we've just had a bunch of new toys given to us by Chestnut's "honorary aunties" so should have a lot of fun with those =) Thanks again for all the ideas, this is great!