Games!

[chene]

I was inspired by the recent post about Calypso. I think it'd be lovely to amass a collection of all sorts of interesting games to play with a dog. So, what are your favourite games to play? Indoor or outdoor, any age, any theme, just give a brief description and don't repeat one that someone else has suggested (variations on them are fine though). Brownie points for ones you made up yourself.

[CSW]

When it hit -70 wind chill in Fargo, we would play hide and seek in the house. This was with my old dog and he played it every winter including his last. I would put him in a sit stay in a corner in the kitchen facing the corner and go hide and call him. I was pretty sneaky and would hide in really hard to find places. He always got a treat for finding me. We could play for a long time and it was always me that got tired of it first. It was our favorite game.

[moosikins]

I love this! Calypso also learned how to play by herself - she grabs her toys and throws them into the air and then jumps to catch them or chases after them if they roll or bounce away. We're also teaching her how to play rough appropriately. She doesn't have a particularly soft mouth, so we're working on the boundries. Right now, she can play for a few minutes at a time and then gets wound up, forgets that we're not dogs, and nips which ends the game.

[Cass C]

I play goalie with my dogs. I have a chair that is raised just enough for balls to roll under it and I will get on the floor and roll the ball under the chair. The dog's job is to keep the ball from going under the chair and if it does they have to retrieve it for me.

[CMP]

Put Your Toys Away

 

Is a game, really. Shhh. Don't tell the dogs it's a chore, they think it's a game. Get a toy, put it in the toybox, go to the treat spot, get your treat and get another toy. If more than one dog is playing it gets hilarious as they try to get more toys than the other one.

 

 

Count With Me

 

Bark as many times as I tap (the floor, the table, the wall, whatever).

 

 

 

Scary Dog!

 

Act really scary. Growl and snarl and snap at the air. Get into an aggressive stance. Make me feel frightened. They hate it if I don't act scared enough. They love scaring me. The end of this game involves me scaring them. Like all my games, it's part of the overall training and trust building. Some of them get into it and act pretty scared. It's pretty fun.

 

 

 

Shadow!

 

Get behind me and don't let me see you. When I turn, you turn, when I spin, you spin. Walk if I walk, run if I run, stop if I stop. Just don't let me see you. The Border Collies LOVE that game and even the adults will play it.

 

 

Berner Special

 

Lie on your bed and try and avoid balls hitting your head. Yeah, I know. But they won't catch and they seem to like it (they bring me balls and then fling themselves on their beds and bark at me, so I assume ...)

 

 

Match the Socks!

 

Puppies seem to love this one. Socks from the laundry - usually still warm - are a favourite thing all around, right? So I grab a sock from the pile, throw it one the floor, and tell the dog to find the match. You have to try and use differrent socks, obviously - a pile of white tube socks does not work :/ The Scottie is AMAZING at that game. The Border Collies tend to just bring you socks until the right one is located - trial and error.

 

 

Musical Kennels

 

Go to (name of dog)'s kennel! They also love that one - like eating dinner at someone else's house. They get a treat inside. They all have their own kongs and sometimes I put their kongs in the wrong kennels and tell them to find their kongs and take them to their own crate/bed. With so many dogs I have always made sure that none of them is freaky about their space. I know people don't recommend this and they say every dog needs his own space but ... meh ... works for me.

 

 

FREEZE!

 

Stop dead like a statue when I yell freeze! Great indoor game.

 

 

 

I have so many games I play that it probably seems to people that all we do is laugh and fall over each other and run about like nuts. I want my dogs to be well behaved, but I also want them to have fun and games are a good way to combine agendas.

[Kian's Mom]

We also play hide and seek but I hide one of her toys. I also make her stay where she can't see me and hide it in another room. She has gotten really good at this. Even started doing it at work today since it's raining.

If she has trouble finding it I will tell good when she is close to it but I don't show her where it's at.

[nancy]

Dixie loves "Hide the Toy". She will even bring me a toy, take it to her chair, and hang it over the edge for me to take. She knows to stay until I come back and say "Find Ropey," or "Find Squeeky". We are going to start working on finding the right toy - someday.

[wal2]

CMP.

 

How you teach all those games?

 

They sound super fun.

[Beach BCs]

I teach my dogs the names of their toys and keep a list of them. On rainy days I put the dogs in the bathroom while I hide toys all over the house. Then I let them out and each of them to find me a different toy. Depending on the toy they've brought me, we will play with that toy or I'll give them a treat.

[chene]

CMP.

 

How you teach all those games?

 

They sound super fun.

 

Yeah, I really want to know how in the heck you teach Scary Dog. You always have the best games!

[RemsMom]

CMP,

 

I think you need to post how-to videos on YouTube. I would love to teach Nattie Scary Dog but the trick I would love to see most is Berner Special!

[teresaserrano]

Today we played a couple of fun games. Weather is lousy so we had to make up stuff to do.

 

First was "Shred the box - a game in two parts". First part consisted, obviously, in Tess shredding a cardboard box. Second part consisted in her picking up all the little cardboard pieces and putting them in a garbage bag. Funny thing was, she found both parts equally interesting. Part 1 was self reinforcing, and part 2 much more structured, but on the other hand in part 2 she got to interact with me, which she always loves. She did need a bit of help though, as sometimes she wanted to take cardboard pieces out of the bag instead of putting new ones in .

 

Then we played "Launch balls down the stairs". I would throw 3 soft balls down the stairs, and then as I was doing stuff around the house, she would go get the balls and bring them to me. When I had all 3 balls, big party and repeat. This game had the advantage of physically tiring her a bit.

 

We had fun.

[teresaserrano]

Today we played games in the woods.

 

First, "Find the pinecone". Whenever we arrive at the woods, she picks up a pine cone, so I try to come up with new ways to use it. This game consists of me putting her in a sit-stay, walking about 40 steps in a straight line, making a 90º turn, walking a bit more and droping the pine cone. Then I go back to her by another route and release her to track. She understands the concept of tracking and keeps her nose to the ground for the most part, but of course she's RUNNING so usually she passes the 90º degree turn at high speed, skids on the fallen leaves, goes back in a circle till she finds my scent again and goes straight for the pinecone.

I supose if I put her on leash I could slow her down and teach her to pay more attention to the turn, but then again we're just having fun and she does find the pinecone, so I guess it doesn't matter.

 

Second game came from something CMP said. I will wait till she's distracted and not too near me and ask for a down, when she complies I will throw the pine cone. She was doing it beautifully at first, but after 3 or 4 tries she began freezing in that half crouching position, like she was saying, "I'm so ready to run after that pine cone, I can't really go to a down as I'll be wasting precious time when you throw it... throw it... throw it..."

 

At first I repeated the down command, then i opted to just shrug and say, "No down, no throw. What a shame, you silly girl", and keep walking. It only worked so-so. Probably it just needs more practice, but any sugestions?

[CMP]

^^

Don't throw it until she's down. She'll make the connection.

 

Sorry, tapping from phone... Will answer other queries later when I am near a real keyboard.

[Root Beer]

I used to play a game with Speedy (this is best with one Border Collie) where I would have two laundry baskets out and I would throw a ball into one basket. He would try to anticipate which basket it was going to and would try to head it off and catch it before it went in. He got really good at watching me to figure out which way it would go.

 

We also used to hide toys for him. His eyes would be covered or he would be put in another room and a toy would be hidden. He would search for it. He loved that game.

 

I used to play a game with Dean where I would sit on the sofa (the back of it used to face the open room). He would be behind it. I had a ball. I would make a distinctive sound (pppppft!) and then I would launch the ball. He would try to anticipate it and head it off. The difference between this and the basket game is that he could not see my arms to read which way the ball would go. He would bring it back and toss it back over the back of the sofa to me. Unfortunately we have moved the sofa, so we don't do this anymore. He loved it.