So I'm gathering a list of fun activities to do with my lab since I am always out of ideas. What do you guys do with your dogs to have fun, train their brain, and exercise? For instance, what do you do outside? What do you do whenever it's really bad weather and you want to do something inside? What do you do when you're chilling with your dog? etcetcetc. Everything from mental stimuli, physical training to just having fun and being silly together. Thanks!
On walks we do a lot of ‘find the tennis ball’. My son goes and hides the ball and dog is sent off to find it. This is great for keeping them both amused! Son also had some home work recently involving teaching a pet a new trick. We weren’t very successful with some of the tricks we tried, but he taught him how to spin. He then decided to teach him to ‘read’ signs as he had seen this at a local dog show. Didn’t hold out much hope, but he achieved it really quickly. Dog responses to the signs ‘sit’ and ‘down’ so far and working on 'spin'. It looks quite impressive too. Unfortunately, my son also decided to teach him to remove his socks (as seen on a programme about assistance dogs). Not a great one as the dog keeps trying this party trick out on visitors. We also do Rally training and agility (of sorts!) so we practise these at home. As for chilling, that was teaching 'settle' so I get to crash on the sofa and the dog in his bed
Xena LOVES a good game of footy/soccer. She also LOVES a good session of hose play and the ensuing rub down with the towel. When the weather is crap we do games of chasey-fetch inside (I have a very small house, it's interesting!) and do some training, usually just simple tricks or skills. My kid is home sick from school today, so Xena won't have her walk until OH gets home this evening. Instead of our usual morning walk I used the bulk of her morning kibble allowance in a hide-and-seek - placed Xena in a sit/stay and "hid" (I use the term very loosely) kibble all over the kitchen/living/dining room. She then had to "find it". It's great to watch her use her nose and hunt about for her food.
Just back from a walk, as it happens. We did: Spins left and right (we're just learning this and the three dogs are at different stages) Middle Middle with a piece of food thrown out - they have to stay in middle until released (as I'm doing this, the other two have to lay down and watch without running to the food - you can do that as a separate game in a one-dog household) Ping-pong recall Sausage tree Sniffing out scattered food Leg weaves Magic hand - I'm moving on to being able to back up and have them back up next to me Hand targeting (always a favourite) Front feet up (on trees, rocks etc) Using a big rock as a boundary for them to get on and stay on while I toss food around Earlier on, I made a noise box, where I put a few pieces of food in a cardboard box and then fill it with noisy objects. This helps desensitise to noises and build confidence as well as working their noses. We also love the "ready steady" game where I give them a behaviour... "Reeeeaaaaaddddddyyyyy...... steeaaaaaaaddddyyyyyyy...... SIT!". Oh, and Willow loves it when I chase her, so I wriggle my fingers at her in a menacing way ( ) and then.... "CHASE CHASE CHASE", so she goes belting off, looking over her shoulder and grinning at me while I stumble along behind her Catching snowballs. Digging in the snow. Most of my walks are "there and back again" when the snow is deep, and I normally just sit down in the snow at the turning point and let the dogs mooch, digging for pine cones and stuff for ten minutes or so. Sometimes they will settle down with me and just enjoy the view Very, very rarely do I not go out with them at least twice a day. The only time I don't go out is when it's dangerous from high winds or really bad ice (sometimes it gets so neither I not my dogs can stand because it's so slippy). This has only happened maybe three or four times in the three years I've had the dogs. We live in a ski resort in the winter so get some pretty miserable weather at times, but I just get dressed up against the elements - sometimes even with goggles on otherwise I won't be able to see - and out we go. No fair weather walkies here!
Tug is definitely Molly’s favourite. We also do quite a lot of retrieving -she adores plastic bottles and I weight them with a few small pebbles and she chases them. We do ‘proper’ retrieving with dummies - no running in / wait till sent - and sometimes throw several in different directions and get her to fetch the one I point at. We play catch with balls too. We’re working at send-away. I use a cone and tell her either to go round it and come back or to it and lie down. (We’re only up to about 4 yards so far.) Indoors she likes me to toss a few toys out and then she fetches each in turn and puts it in container. I received a small wicker basket for Christmas so she’s been putting them in there and then carrying the basket round the room.
Inside we do the muffin tin game - put a treat under one ball in a muffin tin and have the other holes filled with balls with nothing under - release and add a cue to find the treat (scent work); Put her in a sit in one room and hide her ball somewhere and release to hunt it; tug and release. I've taught her to go through my legs from the front ("through"), through the middle from the back and stopping when her head pokes out ("middle") and around me all the way finishing to my side at heel then sitting ("around"). These things I build up then eventually introduce them outside on walks. I do some training inside each evening, more if we have a shorter walk due to cold weather. We are also in a tricks class now, so we have tons of things we have to work on at home. We just mastered crawling...start with your dog in a down position and gently lure with one hand and if shoulders and/or bum raise from the floor gently place your hand to build awareness. Once your dog can move a little without raising off ground, increase lure distance and start building in a cue. Fade out lure. When we are out walking, I do lots of down/stays and sit/stays while I walk around her or away from her. I release her from far away and ask to go through my legs (she loves this one) or a hand touch. I practice recall constantly and work on my hand signal for recall (arm straight up in the air - this is when she is a bit too far for my voice to be useful as I don't use a whistle). We also play fetch, and I do lots of work on releasing her, sometimes putting her ball far away, sometimes throwing before she can retrieve it.
@ziggy It sounds very fun! How did you teach him that he is suppose to find the ball? Also I am a bit new to a lot of things and I never really understood Rally training, is it fun? @snowbunny Do you mean middle as in spinning in the middle? Also excuse me as English isn't my native tounge but what do you mean by sausage tree, leg weaves and magic hand? What kind of noisu items do you normally use? @Joy oh I'd love to be able to retrieve with my lab haha, I just have to figure out how to make him retrieve things without completely chewing them to pieces! As for now I am only able to fetch/make him retrieve Kong toys @QuinnM15 Do you mean like a metallic muffin tin? Have you taught her to make a sign so that you know which hole she suspects the candy to be in?
@QuinnM15 thanks for explaining how to teach a crawl. It'd never occurred to me to teach it but she can "down" so we should be able to build from that. Famous last words
"Middle" is where the dog runs to you and stands between your legs, facing the same direction as you. He should stay there until released. "Sausage tree" is where I hide a lot of treats (often sausage, but it doesn't have to be!) in the bark of a rough tree. If you can do this when your dog isn't looking, it's even better - you just discovered a "sausage tree"! If I'm on my own, I just pop my dogs in a sit-stay while I make it. Leg weaves - where the dog does figure-8s around your legs. "Magic hand" - you have treats in your hand above the dog's head and drop one through your fingers every now and again for the dog to catch. You can work on positioning your dog into a precise position with this, by making small movements back and forwards. You can do it in a stationary position or whilst walking - it's good for a "heel" position. You can also play it in "middle" and get some movement going there, so your dog stays in middle even if you're moving. For the noise box, I use stuff that comes in packing boxes (bubble wrap, crumpled tissue paper), small sturdy glass jars, cutlery, smaller boxes etc etc. Anything that might make a noise if the dog pushes it but isn't dangerous if they pick it up.
My DH does the outside walks (I do a short one) so I concentrate on indoor training/games using her kibble allowance. At the beginning of the year, I started planning her activities weekly so I can keep it fun for my 14 month old pup. I do about 7/8 games daily for a week, then change them for others the next week. These include recall games, weaves, spins, premack games, touch. I intend to do all these and more outside when the weather improves.
I think I might get a tunnel a jump and some weave poles for the garden. Rory's 4 so it would be safe for him to do and I think he would like it.
Hi, Rally is a type of obedience training outside; we joined a club, but you could easily do the activities at home. This link will give you more information on what they are https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/activities/rally/ Find the ball: we started by showing him the ball and where we were hiding it and rewarding him when he found it. Then gradually made it a bit harder. Now it is placed out of sight at some distance. If he can’t find it we help direct him to it and then make the next search easier. I just love watching his tail when he is searching: it spins like a propeller. When he was a pup, we played ‘find the person’. Someone would hide in the house and call for him and he would be sent to find them. We still do this on long walks and he loves it (although you can get some strange looks if people walk past you while you're hiding in the bushes)
