So I've been thinking of some new games and training to try with Monty that I can do indoors and are low impact. I work at home a couple of days a week and need some new activities that will tire him out mentally for 5 or 10 minutes at a time. Do you think I could try the ideas of rally indoors? Something like setting up each room downstairs as a different station, using pop bottles as posts, car mats and raised beds, walking around chairs, etc. obviously space is an issue and we could only walk but I wanted something that would also work on his impulse control. Any ideas for whether I could make it work and how not to let it be boring? I assume I would write out what I wanted to achieve at each 'station' and then stick to that order, increasing the complexity when/ if we achieve it ?
In rally, each station is meant to be completed within a one square meter imaginary box, so you don't really need that much room. In saying that, I've never tried to set one up inside my pokey house. With 10 minutes I'd be more inclined to work on skills like walking backwards, paws on a stool and then working towards having them move clockwise etc around the stool whilst still keeping the paws on the stool. Even setting up a basic balance board can take a lot of practice. Xena wouldn't step foot on one laid flat on the ground for weeks!
And apologies to those of you who do proper Rally trials, I know I'm talking about an over simplified version, I don't mean to underestimate the people who do it properly and compete after hours of training @Joy and @Emily I think? And @Xena Dog Princess maybe?
Fun home-made rally style exercises can definitely be done indoors We do a version that involves going round things, jumping up on the couch and bed, tricks, sending away to sit at a target, short retrieves... Obi loves it Keep your own energy levels up, be enthusiastic and don’t worry about precision - make it fun and fast. Monty will have a ball.
I think you'll have lots of fun together with an improvised indoor version of Rally. You could also investigate some fun around Hoppers which is really good for older dogs or thise with joint problems. I've done some with my girl and had huge fun together. Or you could look at an indoor version of Parlour which you can adapt for your own circumstances.
Thanks all, youve given me some ideas already, I've got some blow up wobble boards that I bought years ago to do his exercises on (but never really used them) maybe I'll start with those. Maybe I'm over thinking the rally bit and just need more exciting stuff to do indoors.
This is a bit of topic....but not in regard to a rally....but if I wanted to teach my puppy to put one paw on something or go backwards, would I use a hand signal for each command...would I just make sure each is slightly different? And how do I teach my pup to go backwards...been wanting teach this...
@Me and my dog Back is quite easy, if you have your dog in front of you and take a small steps towards them, they will often move back naturally, helps if you are in a narrow space to make this more likely. My hand signal is a sort of shooing backward motion with my hands that came naturally. It's really useful as my dog often follows me into the garage towards the freezer, then I need him to back up for us both to get out of a tight space. I use the verbal cue back, back, until he's backed up enough. With treats Ii haven't really taught this, it just evolved out of necessity. In terms of the paw placements, have a look at challenge 1 here: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/october-november-forum-challenge.21119/
Here's another technique for training backing up which doesn't involve body pressure (stepping into the dog so they move backwards) which is aversive. For those of us who try to go to the nth degree to avoid aversives, however minor they may seem https://eileenanddogs.com/2013/12/04/how-to-teach-dog-to-back-up/
Here's a video (linked from the above article) which shows the same behaviour, with the same dog, trained through negative reinforcement (body pressure) and positive reinforcement:
@snowbunny Goodness, I never even thought of the walking towards him as aversive, I feel a bit bad now
Don't beat yourself up, I'm sure most of us do it unintentionally to a greater or lesser extent just in everyday life! I didn't mention it to make you feel bad, but to give another option of how to train the behaviour without. It will certainly depend on the dog as to how unpleasant they find it. I can imagine me trying to teach Luna to back up by entering her space. She'd just look at me until I actually stood on her
Monty places himself in the kitchen when I'm cooking, nose touching one cabinet, tail the other, and I almost have to step over him to get to the fridge. We do a shuffle round the kitchen so he doesn't lose his spot. In the garage, the situation I described, he actually blocks me between the freezer if I'm not careful, he knows about the prawns in there. He won't turn around in small spaces, so this is where the moving towards him to let me out started from.... I've always thought he saw it as a game (we do forward, back, forward, back) but I'll be a but more mindful now.
