June 30, 2008
It's All Fun and Games
Two Enjoyable Games to Play with your Dog
Dog Game 1: The "Find It" Game
A good game to play with your puppy is "Find It." Hide her toy or a treat a few feet away from her and have her search for it. She will learn to develop her sense of smell in searching for the toy. As your puppy gets the hang of this game, make it more challenging by hiding her toy further away. Someone may have to hold her back while you hide the toy so she doesn't follow you to see where you hid it.
A wonderful twist to this game is to take an old glove and put a treat in the glove. Before you hide the glove, let her sniff it and mouth it - really tease her with it so that she wants it in the worst way. Hide it, but again, not too far away at first. This game gives pups the chance to use their sense of smell and sharpen their problem-solving abilities.
The Find It game is an early stage of teaching your puppy how to track. Tracking is a wonderful outdoor sport for dogs. You can call the local or national tracking clubs for more information.
Dog Game 2: “Fetch”
One game that we all know even if we never had a dog is the game of Fetch. In this simple game, you can begin to familiarize your puppy with at least three commands.
All you need is a ball and a wall. Bounce the ball against the wall (a soft ball for inside the house) and say "Fetch" as your puppy chases after it. The purpose of saying "Fetch" is to get her to identify the word with her action. After a certain number of repetitions, she will associate the word Fetch with the act of chasing after the ball. This is an easy way to start creating a pattern in your puppy's mind.
Other commands you can use during this game are "Take it," "Drop it," and "Leave it." At the moment she puts the ball inside her mouth, say "Take it." When she brings and drops the ball for you, say "Drop it." If she doesn't drop the ball, then make her drop the ball by substituting another motivator, such as a treat, so that she will drop the ball to get at the treat - I call this a fair exchange. Say "Drop it"
Of course, in the beginning, she won't connect her actions with the words; she is too busy just having fun. But by playing this game for five minutes a day for a week or two, she will start associating the words with the action.
What I like about the Fetch game, or any game for that matter, is that pups will never run away from you when they are playing. She will always bring the toy back to you because she knows the game will continue. And through this you are building trust.
If your pup gets distracted by another toy and picks that up, don't stop her. Just say "Take it" when she puts another toy in her mouth, and use that toy to play Fetch. You are allowing her fun to continue. Never force a pup to play a game when she has lost interest. Losing interest does not show a lack of intelligence in your dog. She is just naturally being a puppy.
Read more on the topic in the article Hello in There.
Filed under Blog by Emily
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