Rainy days (or too hot or too cold days too) can be fun-filled days with your pup or dog!
Food Find It Game
One of my favorite indoor games to play is what I call the Food Find It Game. In this one game, you are going to be working all kinds of amazing concepts like “Find It”, “Come”, “Sit”, “Here Position”, and “Place”.
Now remember, all good games have rules, right? That means, always shut down the silliness if your pup has rude or destructive behavior while playing the game (no jumping on humans, running away from humans, or barking at humans). This game is best played when your dog is hungry!
What You Will Need
Before you play, make sure you have the following:
- A leash on your pup: It’s essential that you have your leash on your dog so that you can influence your dog’s choices while in play and guide your pup to a better choice. Let the dog drag the line as you play.
- A bed or raised dog cot
- Several different kinds of treats:
- Low value: Kibble
- High value: String cheese and a meat treat of some kind. Pups have a very short attention span, so you want to be sure to have a couple of higher value treats to keep their interest up as the game progresses.
How to Play the Food Find It Game
To play the game:
- Grab a few kibbles and toss them out away from you.
- Encourage your pup to “FIND IT” as they run and gobble up the kibbles.
- As soon as the last kibble is gobbled, call your pup back to you with “COME”.
- Encourage them to come to you by having the higher value treat of cheese or meat ready. When they come to you, mold the “SIT”, then they get the treat!
Variations of the Game
- Recall to Heel Position: On some of the recalls, you can shape your pup to come to your left side to the “HERE/HEEL” position and mold the sit, and they get the treat. Shape/lure that position by keeping the treat down low in front of their nose as you draw your hand around. As your pup follows it, get them in position on your left side. They get the high value treat when they arrive at the right spot.
- Recall to Place: Another variation is to send the kibble out for the “FIND IT”. When the last kibble is eaten, get their attention and ask them to get to “PLACE”. Use your high value treat to lure them to the bed/raised dog bed. They get the high value treat when all four paws are onto “PLACE”.
Benefits of Indoor Games
Games are GREAT for pups to learn new concepts in a fun, low-pressure way. They learn that excitement goes up, then as they sit, get into the here position, or hop onto place, excitement goes down. It’s a wonderful thing for a pup to learn that they can toggle between those two states of mind!
