Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Indoor Games

It has been brutally cold here the past few days. The dogs run out, do their business and then run back in- quite often on three feet.

We have done a few short walks- but Pixel really hates boots at this point so it was quite a struggle for a whole lot of nothing... :o)

So to keep them busy, and to tire them out we have been doing lots of fun things indoors.

First each dog gets 5ish minutes of "training"- sits, downs, stand, heeling, pivots, nose touches, tricks.... I usually take about 12 cookies and we do only as much as 12cookies allow...

Then I put all the dogs away and hide a water bottle with kibble in it somewhere in the living room. One at a time they get to come out and "find" the hidden treasure. Each of them does something a little different when they find it. Wicca carries it away and gets the kibble out. Vito throws it in the air and rolls around on it. Boone paws and pokes at it until I get the kibble out for him, and Pixel tries to eat through the bottle right then and there...

Another game we play is upstairs fetching. I throw the toy to the top of the stairs and send the dog...Pixel doesn't play this game yet, but the others do.

We have also been experimenting with the yoga ball and perch. All of the dogs can get on the ball now- even Pixel. They all like the perch- Pixel in particular is sure it's a food dispenser

One of the favorites in the house are the 1,2,3 Go races. I put all the dog in sit stays(except Pixel who I still restrain) then I throw cookies across the floor and whisper 1, 2, 3 OKAY! The dogs release on the Okay- of course the dog who get their first is going to get more cookies...then I call them all back - the first dog back gets the cookie. The others get nothin....Wicca and Pixel have this figured out pretty well and are always the first ones back..the boys, not so much.

Any other fun indoor games ideas???

2 comments:

Kim said...

Our favorite indoor game is hide and seek. I put the dogs in a sit/stay and then go hide somewhere in the house - behind a door, behind the shower curtain, under a blanket on the couch (you get the idea). I then call "find me" and the dogs run around like crazy trying to figure out where I have gone. I usually give myself away because I am laughing, but we all have lots of fun. As a side benifit, it is a great way to practice out-of-sight stays.

Elf said...

We work on going backwards up the stairs. For treats, of course. I haven't tried going backwards down the stairs. (We started at the top, bring the dog down one step, then two steps, etc.)

And "get in the box". Have been working into smaller & smaller boxes.

And "clean up" (pick up all the toys and put them into the toy bin). Boost is good at this; Tika gets too excited to be very good at it, but we're trying.