Jump to content

Ideas For Games To Play With Your Puppy/dog?


mowgliandme
 Share

Recommended Posts

What games do you play with your dog? :) looking for suggestions/ideas other than tug/fetch

My puppy is currently teething so she is not as interested in tug at the moment and more interested in chewing sticks/frozen treats/the tug toys

I have been told that the jolting in fetch can be really bad for developing joints (?) so am trying to keep the repetitions in a day low and only playing on grassy areas. I can get her to wait when I throw it and then retrieve the ball so have been doing a bit of that

We do a few sessions of tricks/obedience training during the day and I take her for 1 or 2 short walks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scent games! We specifically do Nosework, but there are some generic games here: http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/8-fun-scent-games-your-dog-will-love/80052

Will these help improve her sense of smell? :) It takes her at least 5-10 seconds to find a piece of meat outside that i've put right in front of her! (I was attempting the loose leash walking technique where you drop food behind you and walk ahead) she is only a little better inside

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My dog and I had heaps of fun out of the ebook 51 Puppy Tricks by Kyra Sundance (and Jadie).

You can download a sample from Kindle to see the index of tricks but the book is $13.12 to buy.

It covers things like

Respond to clicker,

Touch my hand

Watch me

Settle

Kennel up

Come

Stay

Loose leash walk

Find me

Crawl

Put toys in toy box

Which hand holds the treat

The list of cool tricks goes on and on!

She provides great insight in to training a pup via luring or shaping and she also has a book 101 dog tricks which uses the same dog model but as an adult.

I highly recommend it :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am loving all the ideas :)

She is a very clever puppy at learning tricks! :) she knows sit, down (both with implied stay with distractions until released), leave it, stand, belly up, come, go to crate, touch, watch me, weaving between legs, spin/twirl, get it, bring it, drop, we are working on “paws up” on an object and pivoting at the moment, shes very good at settling everywhere …

But food isn’t motivating enough for her outside of the house (she’s not over fed and quite slim) so I’m looking for more bonding/playful things so that I can get more focus and attention when we are outside/like at training…because then she would rather sniff all the grass than work with me :( soo i need to be more fun/exciting?

This could be temporary because the week before at training she did soo amazingly that we moved up a level and then last week I could barely get her to do anything -even the basics...she is just hitting 5 months so may be at that "selective deafness" stage in puppy development but more bonding/attention never hurt anyone!

The trainer suggested i keep giving leash corrections until she listens but I don't think that builds me as a fun person to be around/would rather try something else

Edited by mowgliandme
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scent games! We specifically do Nosework, but there are some generic games here: http://moderndogmagazine.com/articles/8-fun-scent-games-your-dog-will-love/80052

Will these help improve her sense of smell? :) It takes her at least 5-10 seconds to find a piece of meat outside that i've put right in front of her! (I was attempting the loose leash walking technique where you drop food behind you and walk ahead) she is only a little better inside

It will improve her scent detection, but the funny thing about scent is that their experience of it is so much richer than ours. Sometimes a dog may need to go out to a different spot in order to catch the 'source' (of the scent) that was right in front of them. She's cleverer than you think. :grimace:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It will improve her scent detection, but the funny thing about scent is that their experience of it is so much richer than ours. Sometimes a dog may need to go out to a different spot in order to catch the 'source' (of the scent) that was right in front of them. She's cleverer than you think. :grimace:

:) Knew that there would be a good explanation for it! Looking forward to trying nosework with her

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am loving all the ideas :)

She is a very clever puppy at learning tricks! :) she knows sit, down (both with implied stay with distractions until released), leave it, stand, belly up, come, go to crate, touch, watch me, weaving between legs, spin/twirl, get it, bring it, drop, we are working on "paws up" on an object and pivoting at the moment, shes very good at settling everywhere …

But food isn't motivating enough for her outside of the house (she's not over fed and quite slim) so I'm looking for more bonding/playful things so that I can get more focus and attention when we are outside/like at training…because then she would rather sniff all the grass than work with me :(soo i need to be more fun/exciting?

This could be temporary because the week before at training she did soo amazingly that we moved up a level and then last week I could barely get her to do anything -even the basics...she is just hitting 5 months so may be at that "selective deafness" stage in puppy development but more bonding/attention never hurt anyone!

The trainer suggested i keep giving leash corrections until she listens but I don't think that builds me as a fun person to be around/would rather try something else

Yes, you need to build the value for you, and be more exciting than anything else.

Use SUPER tasty treats, lots of fun and weird noises and movements. The more you do with your dog the more this happens really.

So plenty of quality time doing fun things will make you super cool.

If you have a look on youtube for some of susan garretts recallers games like PB+J and Cookie in the corner - these also help teach a great recall, whilst being a fun game for your dog :)

Otherwise just tricks! Literally the sky is the limit with tricks :)

Do you feed her from a bowl?

My dogs and pups get almost all of their food in the form of training games.

Edited by denali
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OMG! You are so lucky! That class is run by a DOL Superstar!

Trust your instincts. x

It looks amazing, going to book it now :) Will do!

https://denisefenzi.com/2016/10/17/the-rational-participant/

Yes, you need to build the value for you, and be more exciting than anything else.

Use SUPER tasty treats, lots of fun and weird noises and movements. The more you do with your dog the more this happens really.

So plenty of quality time doing fun things will make you super cool.

If you have a look on youtube for some of susan garretts recallers games like PB+J and Cookie in the corner - these also help teach a great recall, whilst being a fun game for your dog :)

Otherwise just tricks! Literally the sky is the limit with tricks :)

Do you feed her from a bowl?

My dogs and pups get almost all of their food in the form of training games.

We are playing a lot more in general! Previously I would play with her a little bit with toys and then she would just continue on playing by herself or go chew on the toys and then I'd go do something else... but now she is just constantly bringing me toys to play with (and wont play by herself at all...)

I have been doing lots of short sessions of just running around with her and in the backyard, play with with toys, making fun noises, having her chase me etc :) which has been lots of fun

she does like chasing the toys but at the moment doesn't want to tug them much because she is teething~

She gets most of her food from a treat ball but she's not much of a foodie and is reluctant learn tricks for her regular dry food (she will do behaviours she already knows for it slowly but wont learn new behaviours for it even after missing two meals...I'm not sure if I should be more stubborn here? but she either just doesnt take it, spits it out or just goes and does something else!)

...i had steak and roast chicken at training last week and she still wanted to sniff around - So heres hoping that building the value for me works better than food!

Looking into Susan Garrett videos now :)

I've started playing hide and seek with Dozer in the house..

I was inspired by videos from Thistle's mum, and Dozer has a ball!

I do that too! :)

Edited by mowgliandme
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...