Fun Puppy Games

[Mil]

We're are getting tired of playing the same two games with our puppy.

Maybe we could all share some games that we and our puppies love to play?

Thanks look forward to it.

[♥Bruno♥]

Mil, I generally just play tug games with Bruno. Being a ridgeback, hge wont play fetch, or anything he deems "silly" haha!

I usually play running "chasey" type games with him, which doubles as a training routine - I run, he catches me, then I turn around and say "sit!" and he has to sit and wait until I say "chasey!" and he is allowed to get up. I am now trying this with a "drop" command, and getting him used to laying down for me. He loves going to the park (the only place in town with any grass left in it) and rolling, and he loves loves loves it when I roll next to him. I'm sure passers-by think I'm one of those drunk 'park people' haha!

[The Spotted Devil]

Our favourite game at the moment involves hiding toys of different 'value' in the lounge room. I keep Ziggy in another room and show him the toy (start with a low value and build up)...then I tell him to 'wait' and hide the toy. I return to Ziggy and tell him to 'Find'...he flies into the lounge at 100mph with his tail straight up and sniffs out the toy. I started out by placing the toy in clear view and made it progressively harder. I have started complicating it by placing distracting toys around the room. He loves this game and it's a great way to make him tired without over-exercising him.

Bruno06 - love your image of rolling with your dog...brilliant! I get my OH to do that if Ziggy ignores him for a recall. Never not funny!

[Henrietta]

I play a silly little game with my Chi. I have an assortment of toys out and I show her what they are. The tug things is called 'rope' the squeaker is called 'squeaker' and the bear is called 'bear' etc. As if you couldn't have understood that lol

Well what I do, after showing her what they are we play a game where I tell her which toy I want and when she picks the right run we have a muck around with it. She goes absolutely nuts!!

[Pandora]

Bundy and I stalk each other.

After she chases me around the back yard she'll get down low (as will I) and slowly stalk towards me.

Its pretty good fun

[Joan of Arc]

We have Labrador puppies and they are really self exercising and self amusing but we play tug-a -war with them, they wrestle with us, we hide food and they have to find it - this helps to train them to retrieve when we go shooting, They love to play chasings around the yard and the house, sqeaky toys are great for chasing and retrieving -alwasy a reward when it is retrieved.

We take our lead from the older dogs when they play with the pups - if the pack does it why cant we?

[blacklabrador]

My favourite game with T bone is to hide toys for him to sniff out and retrieve.

He waits in the kitchen while I hide something and then I tell him to get it. Often I will use household objects that he has never seen before - I just let him sniff them first so he knows what he's looking for.

He loves it and so I do.

[bloss344]

That's Bob and my favourite game too. It's a great way to practice out of sight sit stays too. I've never tried him with household items though, great idea.

[Shihzoo]

;) Emmala and Pandora - me and the dogs are coming over - those games sound like FUUUUUUUUUN! Off to make notes on them for tomorrow!

[BC]

I hide on my dogs and they have to come and find me. I have to think of more hidy spots though as they know behind the doors and behind the curtains.

When they find me we have a big wrestle and they dart off down the hall way in excitement. Thats when I go and hide again, and so on and so on, until I am going to collapse

It's fun, I like it when they're so close to you and they know you are there, but just cant find you. Hiding in the shower is a good one for this.

[Willesden Goldens]

Baxter and I like to play hide and seek. I'll tell him to sit and wait, then I hide in another room behind a curtain or couch, call him and then wait for him to sniff me out! My OH thinks we're crazy!

[ShellyBeggs]

Oh these games are all so much fun!!!

And your 'find and fetch' games with household items is handy.....spill a drink and you can send the dog to get the teatowel of the rail.

I spent most of my labs puppy life teaching him tricks......

play dead (and not a twitch of movement), shake hands, high five, high ten (both paws).......roll over and back the other way, beg and sook, weaving between your legs and dancing which usually invovlved spinning around in circles until you fall over.....and yep a dog can spin around till they fall over.

Was always handy if i needed peace or quiet especially if the phone rang.....would just hold my hand like a gang and say 'bang' and the pesky puppy would flop over 'dead' until I gave him the release word.

Must admit he does it now of his own accord and even manages quite a lot of snores while dead and not moving!!!!

[Joan of Arc]

Bl your hide and retrieve game is our favourite for training our Labs for field work. WE dont actually trial but we work our dogs and have started training our pups.

Our yellow boy actually gets fed half his dinner that way and loves the game.

[Rhi*Jak*Ed]

Jak's favourite games at the moment are chasey and fetch and to a lesser extent hide and seek. She absolutely loves a good game of chasey, she bolts around the house at breakneck speed and is always exhausted and ready for a good cuddle afterwards (and she's too tired to bite my hands which is always a good thing!).

I always initiate the game by stamping my feet on the floor, she crouches down low wherever she happens to be at the time and bolts. The game is on then! I also stop the game. When we first started playing chasey she would nip at my heels to get me to play but thankfully she's stopped this now and I control it. Yay!!

She can play fetch for hours and she has a squeeky bone and a small round rubber treat ball that she likes to retrieve. I just keep throwing them up the hallway and she keeps running after them and bringing them back for me. Lately she's started trying to fit more than one item in her mouth at the one time and when she realises she can't, she pushes the extra toy back to me with her nose. Very cute to watch and it's also funny seeing her think through her dilemma haha.

She likes hide and seek but starts to cry if she can't find me after a couple of minutes. I then have to show myself, but she's just as excited as if she'd found me all by herself. haha. My house isn't all that big and I'm running out of hiding places.

I've just started hiding her toys and getting her to go find them. So far she only knows her squeeky bone as "bone", but am working on others, slowly. She'll get there :-)