Training Games

[hannahb_patch_faith]

Hi All,

What training games do you play with your dogs? Any suggestions of clciker games which can be played?

 

[southerngirl]

A recall game is have your dog "stay" run away from the dog and say"Come" or whatever your recall word is in an excited voice.
Red light green light: run with your dog than shout stop(click/treat) than say "Go"
This is a good game for off-leash manners. You can use this when he gets to far ahead"Stop"
Hide n Seek: Have your dog sit, go hide, call your dog.
Simon says: Give commands facing away from your dog, sitting down and so on.

 

[MissyBC]

Those are great games to play with your dog, but here's my opinion on calling your dog with the recall game:

Never call your dog out of a stay... always use "wait" before calling your dog.
Stay means "stay where you are until I come back to release you."

Just my opinion and thoughts on that one.

 

[SD&B]

Another great recall game, very similar to Southerngirl's, is to play the game with two people. Two people stand a distance apart and take turns calling "Come". Hold the dog until the other person calls. This game can be fast and furious, which is what the dog really enjoys.

There is always the twist on "101 Things to do with a Box" game. Instead of using a box, use another object. For example, a metal bowl. Then click for interactions with that object.

 

[Evie]

We play hide and seek with Evie... off lead.... in the forest. It's great fun, but not really a clicker related game. Either my partner or I run off and hide, then we tell Evie to 'go find' (usually the person hiding will call her once so she has some idea on where to look) and off she goes. Evie loves it, and is getting much better at using her nose instead of running blindly around the forest lol. But obviously this isn't such a great idea if your dog doesnt have a reliable recall, especially with the amount of small, fast moving creatures which are found in the forest.

OoOoo! but the other game I play with Evie which she also LOVES is when I grab one of her toys, tell her to wait in another room, and then go hide the toy in/on/under things where she can't see it. When we first started playing this game I made it really easy for by making the toy visible, but now I can hide it in closed boxes and she'll still find it It was great to see the change in her from when she stopped searching with her eyes and started using her nose. She always gets a quick game of "chasey" once she finds the toy as her reward.