Favorite mental games?

[kimbersmom]

The colder it gets, the more energetic Kimber gets. We bundle up and play with her outside but because of her spinal injury we can't push her very hard. She also seems to be craving more mental stimulus. We're expecting a big snow storm this weekend so I may be in need of new ideas! Here are things we already do in the house:

1. Hide and seek. Either I hide, or I hide a toy for her to find. The challenge: I'm running out of hiding spots, lol!
2. Food dispensing toys (Buster Cube, Nina Ottosen games, wobble Kong)
3. More formal training: running through commands we already know, and adding to her repertoire.
4. Naming toys. She is *terrible* at this. For some reason, she cannot distinguish between different toys verbally. I've just started assigning a hand signal to each toy to see if she gets it, but, well, that's a work very much in progress. If anyone has tips for this, I'd love to hear 'em.

What are your dog's favorite games?

[shellbell]

Tux and I like to do nosework. We do have a kit with Birch odor in it, though I haven't gotten that out in years. More recently I have started training him to find deer antler sheds. We have a couple of sheds to use to practice. He was also an active Barn Hunt competitor, and has his Open title and a leg towards Senior. But due to some recently arthritic issues I made the decision to retire him from that. So we signed up for a nosework/intro to tracking class that starts in Feb. I don't plan on competing in nosework with him, but might break out the birch to hide the odor for him to find it just for fun.

[Macy]

I need some suggestions too. I play hide and seek, the wobbler and find it the most. I taught her to crawl on a snow day. She refuses to learn roll over. For inside fun, we play The Shell game and Send it Over where she will push the ball back to me.

[Labradorks]

Shaping with a box or a square on a floor. Nosework (shoe boxes with food inside). You could teach scent discrimination (utility level exercise). Hold (this can be a drag for some dogs, depending on how you teach it).

[Tanya]

haha yes hide and seek is the same few spots for me too, will have to be more inventive. Pen LOVES hide and seek. as it means i have to go upstairs or downstairs

The wobbler is now a daily thing.
review old tricks (or proof) and work on new ones
i have a bunch of interactive games we go thru

those are the main go to's.

Pen started limping friday and we're doing very limited walks (and only walks) so we're having to do more of this. luckily she knows how to be lazy :P I also have to pick and chose which of the above I do. We have had to stop our agility homework alltogether. seh gets too exited for hide and seek so that's no good and I pick what tricks we work on.

[Labradorks]

You can teach "fly". Here I am doing it in my living room with the cat. He does it with people, too.

Thru, where the dog runs through your legs, wraps around and ends up in heeling position (left).

Leg weaves.

Spin.

Touch games with blue painters tape.

[Jeff]

LOL I know what you mean about running out of hiding places. I have exhausted them all I think. Anywhere a piece of kibble will fit without him tearing something up to get to are few and far between. The one that seems to always get him is under his bed. I only do it once in a while and i hide other stuff too. So he goes looking around all over then later when he lays down, you see him kind of go, wait a minute, something smells good around here.

Luckily Hemi's training center has a ton of things going on all winter long.
Monday Flyball
Tuesday Agility
Wednesday Obedience
Thursday Canine musical freestyle

Around the house:
Nose work is a big one.
His Pilates on the exercise ball is another one.

I am always teaching him new things. This weekend, and why I never thought of this before, I taught him to bring me my slippers. He has to do them one at a time. I think he figure out he gets a treat for each one. We practice freestyle moves too and do a lot of physical activity in the house. Basically I just let him become part of the housework, you know his closing drawers and he invents things too. I was hanging shirts up last weekend too and apparently one fell on the floor of the closet a while ago. I hadn't noticed. He ducked in there and come out with a shirt and handed it to me. Which he got a reward. I always always reward him when he is being very helpful. So he tries to help out.

Scoutpout also got Hemi a toy as Secret Santa, a puzzle toy. Outward Hound Hide A Squirrel Puzzle Dog Toy, Ginormous

He can not be left alone with it so it only comes out a couple times a month. When it does, he just has the greatest time. I stuff all the squirrels in there and he gets them all out, with me saying things like Oh no, where are the squirrels all gong to live. He gets all the squrriels out and ignores them and takes off running with the tree so I can't put them back in. Eventually I catch him and put all the squirrels back in and much to his delight he has to get them all out again and off he goes running with the tree. No dad, you can't put the squirrels in here, I won't let you. This game can go on for an hour or until his dad gets tired of chasing him.

[Macy]

Another thing I forgot but Jeff's housework post reminded me is that Macy looooves the vacuum. She goes absolute nuts for it. I think it wears her the most. My house is always cleaner in the winter because I vacuum more often for Macy.

[POPTOP]

Kimbersmom: I've been working with Archie on naming toys for some time now. Whenever we play, I always say the name of the toy. If he brings me the wrong one, no treat, the right one, a treat. He has favorites so he wants to go to them all the time so I'll work with just the non-favorites sometimes. I really do think he knows the names, he's just playing dumb. He learns so different than a lab I have to keep that in mind and not get frustrated.

[Labradorks]

Kimbersmom: I've been working with Archie on naming toys for some time now. Whenever we play, I always say the name of the toy. If he brings me the wrong one, no treat, the right one, a treat. He has favorites so he wants to go to them all the time so I'll work with just the non-favorites sometimes. I really do think he knows the names, he's just playing dumb. He learns so different than a lab I have to keep that in mind and not get frustrated.

I truly think dogs do not play dumb.

Here's what I would try. Put away all the toys except one. Get a clicker and some treats if that is what your dog is into. Get the dog. Say the name of the toy while looking at the toy. If the dog moves toward the toy in any way, click (or use a marker like "yes!") and treat. Slowly, over days, increase your criteria. Today you click and treat when he looks but at it, tomorrow you wait for him to nose it, etc. Do that for awhile. Rinse and repeat with different toys (with completely different names).

The first toy might take a bit unless you've done shaping, but once he gets it with the first toy, it should be a breeze.

Have fun!