A friend of mine had a Winter Sunday brunch routine with her Dobermans.
All three dogs would sit-stay in the kitchen while she made a couple of dozen Bannock cakes (small oatcakes), which she hid all over the house. Then she would clap her hands and say, “pancakes!” – at which point the dogs would enthusiastically search high and low for the tasty morsels.
When the weather is not so friendly, there are so many indoor games that you can play at home, or in classes, to keep exercising your dog’s brain. Find, Fetch, and Go To games are wonderful for expanding your dog’s vocabulary and keeping his brain sharp, and there are many other indoor activities to keep your dog (and you) in sharp mental and physical shape.
Dogs really enjoy search games. Cookie-search is certainly loads of fun, but do make sure you count the cookies as part of your hound’s normal daily calorie allotment. We wouldn’t want our dogs to follow our customary holiday habit of pigging out.
Hide n’ Seek is a marvelous non-fattening alternative. Have your dog down-stay in the kitchen and then go and hide in a closet, in the shower, or under the bed and call your dog to find you.
Alternatively, teach your dog to find a family member. In fact, if you teach your dog the names of all members of the family, you’ll have your very own in-house message delivery service because you can instruct your dog to go and find individual people.
This is surprisingly easy to do. Have the family spread out in a circle in one room and later to different rooms. After you instruct your dog, “Rover, go to Dad”, Dad waits just half a second and then enthusiastically calls the dog. Then Dad will say, “Rover, go to Johnny” for example, and Johnny waits half a second before enthusiastically calling the dog. After just a few sessions of “Go To” Round Robin, the dog will have learned the names of family members.
Other useful search games involve teaching your dog to discriminate between different objects so you can ask her to Find & Fetch your car keys, for example, or maybe the remote control for the television. This is a very easy exercise for a dog’s nose, once you have taught him dog the name of the object he should be looking for. (If you enjoy all these search and differential retrieval games, make sure to enroll in a NoseWork or K9 GAMES class after the holidays at www.siriuspup.com.)
My dogs’ favorite at-home activity games are Tug, Follow, and Chase. Nothing motivates a dog more than a good game of tug. Play the game with lots of rules and you’ll soon have a highly motivated, attentive, and extremely obedient dog. As a bonus, once you play Tug, the tug toy may be used as both a lure and a reward for all training.
I personally like following games because they reinforce the dog’s centripetal attraction to me, which is the quintessence of all off-leash obedience. I ask Hugo to follow me from room to room, upstairs and downstairs, over beds and under beds, weaving through chairs, around couches, and under tables in the living room. Hugo just thinks this is a riot, all the more when the following course resembles an agility course.
Dune’s favorite game is Chase. The game always starts with a sit-stay and then I say “tag” and chase him all over the house, although most activity ends up in the dining room, where I chase him round and round the dining room table. He runs so fast he always catches up with me and so all I have to do is quickly about turn to chase him again. Periodically, I stop and ask him to come and sit-stay again to reinforce his obedience (but also to catch my breath). Once you teach your dog to run away on cue, your dog gives you motivated recalls and sit-stays as a wonderful gift.
I hope I’ve convinced you that unpleasant weather is no excuse to let yourself and your dog get lazy and bored. Happy indoor play time and happy holidays!
Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian, canine behaviorist, and puppy-training pio-neer. He is the founder of SIRIUS® Puppy Training and Scientific Director for www.dogstardaily.com.
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