Indoor Games for People and Dogs

Sometimes it rains for days on end. With the summer approaching, we are in for plenty of days like that. In this week’s episode, I’ll suggest a few games to keep your dog from going stir-crazy when the weather traps you both indoors.

 

 

The Find It Game

The easiest doggy game of all may be “Find It” -- you can’t go wrong when sniffing and food are involved. Show your dog a piece of dry food or a tiny treat. Say “Find it!” and toss the food on the ground. If your dog doesn’t quite get the idea of hunting outside the bowl, start her off by dropping the treat right in front of her. Then at each repetition, toss it farther and farther away. You can feed your dog entire meals by playing Find It; for some reason, dogs rarely seem to get bored when looking for food. Make the game more challenging by asking your dog to stay while you hide the treat behind a piece of furniture or in another room. Come back, release your dog from the stay, and wish her happy hunting. I do not suggest using the couch cushions as a hiding place.

 

Hide and Seek

The hidden item in “Find It” can be a person, too, which turns the game into hide-and-seek. This is easiest to teach with two human players -- one to go hide, the other to stay with the dog and encourage him to find the one who’s hiding. The person hiding can make a big fuss over the dog once she’s found -- give the old praise-and-scritch, throw a treat or toy, or play a quick round of tug.

 

The Muffin Tin Game

Amy Samida, of the Naughty Dog Café, in Ann Arbor, told me about the “Muffin Tin Game.” Amy found it online and we’d both love to hear from its inventor, so we can sing his or her praises. Take a 6-muffin tin and put a treat in each cup. Place tennis balls in about half the cups. Once a dog has found the uncovered treats, he usually figures out that knocking away the tennis balls reveals more goodies. As your dog gains experience, you can start hiding treats under only some of the tennis balls and using a 12-muffin or 24-muffin tin. Some dogs, Amy tells me, find it’s the most fun to smack the muffin tin and send all the balls and treats flying -- which you could go with, assuming your breakables are somewhere else. Or you could take Amy’s suggestion of screwing the muffin tin to a large piece of plywood. Keep your dog hard at work!

 

 

Source:  http://dogtrainer.quickanddirtytips.com/play-games-bad-weather.aspx