5. Iron Man Obstacle Challenge
You’ve seen the Worlds fastest Border Collie agility run right? Well your dog doesn’t have to spend his every moment training, but this obstacle course game is a fun one.
Create some obstacles around the house. Things to jump over, weave around and crawl under are perfect.
Here are a few ideas:
- A yard stick on two pillows or small chairs he can jump over
- A chair he can run under or jump up on
- A ball you can toss for him to catch
- A laundry basket next to a pile of toys he can pick up and place in the basket
- A cardboard box with the ends open so he can run through. (also perfect is one of those kids play tunnels if you have one)
- A line of pillows or boxes he can weave through
Set these up in stages just like you see on those agility events on TV. Guide your dog through them until he gets the hang of it. Then you can time him trying to get him to go faster through each time. Make sure to make it fun with lots of praise, play time and maybe a small treat.
The goal isn’t to make your dog ready for competition, but to have some quality one on one time on a dreary day.
6. Over, Under and Through
Over, under and through is a good game to get your dog ready for the more intense obstacle course game. This game is also perfect for a rainy day indoor “poop out the pooch” session. Find an object he can crawl under, jump over and run through. A chair, open box or step stool with open legs is good.
First teach your dog how to crawl through the object, walk around it, jump over it and crawl under it and stop. A fun way to incorporate clicker training as you may want to use your clicker and treats until he gets the hang of it.
When he gets the hang of it you can pick up the pace and have him do several combinations before you give him the treat.
This is a good game to increase your dogs vocabulary. Soon he will understand all sorts of commands. You can then use those to make up your own games.
7. Clean up time!
Teaching your dog to clean up is a very useful game to master. (if only I could get my kids to play this game) Simply scatter your dog toys around the living room or house and have him hunt them down and put them in his toy box.
For each one he earns a reward. It’s best to be a praise type reward rather than treats if you have lots of toys.
If your dog is new to this task it may take some practice until he learns “put it away”. Start out small with only a few toys close by. Once he gets it you can spread them out around the room. Eventually you can hide them around the house and have him gather them all up.
This type of brain game can also be modified to train your dog how to fetch certain items… i.e… the fore mentioned slippers, iPad and coffee.
Well maybe not that advanced but I’m sure there are plenty of things you can think of that it would be nice to have your dog go get for you. 🙂
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These are great ideas. They work best, however, if you only have one dog – otherwise they’re competing for the same treat. Do you have any suggestions for games that you can play with two dogs? I’ve tried playing with each in a separate room, but, once they smell the treats, that’s all over!
Would be great if they played with each other, but they never have.
Anyway, wonderful post!
Thanks Abbey. Yes I can see how it would be challenging with two dogs. 🙂 You could attempt to work on your sit/stay commands with the second dog as the first runs for the treat. Difficult I know but eventually you could have them taking turns.
This is awesome! We already do some of these with our puppy too!
Hey, these are some great suggestions! I especially like the “over, under and through”. It’s simple yet effective. I’m a dog trainer and will definitely recommend this to my clients.