Does anyone have any suggestions of nice, calm, indoor puppy games? I'm trying to wean Bonnie off games where she gets too excited (like fetch). I'm struggling to find things that don't involve food :-\ We can do games where tiny bits of kibble are the reward but I'm trying to think of fun things to keep her amused but not exacerbate the hyperactivity I described elsewhere!
Re: Some nice indoor puppy games How about teaching some tricks such as give paw, spin around, lie down, play dead etc. you might need to start with using food, but fade them out. I play 'find it' a lot with food or toys. Basically I hide food or a toy and get her to go and find it.
Re: Some nice indoor puppy games I agree, training tricks is fun....and also it can be a useful time to work on sit/stay and down/stay.....I tend to pick skills that I think can be useful in multiple ways...and I just adjust how much kibble she gets according to how many training games we do. There's been talk of 101 things to do with a box, and 4 paws in a box, and skills like that recently....and they can prove to engage your pup and tire out their brains....fun for you and her!
Re: Some nice indoor puppy games I took Julie's suggestion regarding teaching a game of "catch" - it is like a very low key game of fetch! Maisie doesn't like it *as much* as fetch but it doesn't get her worked up either. How we play this is Maisie sits Is told to wait I back up a bit Throw a toy gently at her (aiming right at her mouth so sh doesn't have to jump or move much) and say "ok, catch!" She catches it in her mouth (or doesn't, and scrambles off after it) and returns it to me (hopefully to my hand) and gets a treat. Then we set that up again. Other people may do that a bit differently, but that's how we do it. Another game that doesn't seem to work Maisie up too much is "hide and seek" … I'm not sure how much of a game she thinks it is, but it's kind of fun for me! How it works: Maisie gets told "in your crate" and goes in the crate, gets a treat Shut door, say wait, open door Walk off and "hide" (my place is fairly open plan so I have about 4 places I can "hide" out of her sight) Depending how long your puppy can wait for, wait a bit and then call "okay, find [your name!]". If the puppy has a touch command, you can hold your hand out and get her to touch your nose as she finds you or just give her a treat for finding you! Then back into the crate. That one is nice because she gets to run a bit, but it has a calm down time built in (the wait).
Re: Some nice indoor puppy games We do a lot of hiding a toy and going to find, I show bailey the toy, he sits in kitchen I close door go hide in another room, then he goes to find x Now 8 months I hide under towels etcx I also a accidently drop things and ask him to pick it upx It involves food but I also hide few kibble in plastic cups and place around the house, the. He had to bring back cupsx
Re: Some nice indoor puppy games I extended the hiding game with my ESS by gradually hiding more toys,E.g. Kong, Ball, Squeaky Tug Tug at the same time but she only got the C&T for bringing back the one I asked her to find. Amazing how quickly she cottoned on. She did find it quite exciting because she wanted to do it fast...but then she wants to do everything at breakneck speed.....
