Puppy Games

[Snackz]

Our puppy is 5 and a half months old and I'm looking for some games we can play in the house/garden. We've only got a smallish garden. He LOVES hide and seek with his toys (this has also helped him learn 'drop') but there's only so many places we can hide his toys as he's not allowed upstairs.

Any ideas would be great

Sniff for treats - which can then be expanded by hiding the treat inside something then hiding the something. e.g. I save old toilet rolls and hide a treat inside some screwed up paper, stuff inside the roll. Then hide the roll.

Learning tricks - even if they are never used for anything, the act of learning itself has so many benefits. This can include expansion on the different training methods which stretches your skills as well as the dogs. e.g. I challenged myself to teach my dog to place his nose into a basket muzzle and keep it there BUT 'forbid' myself from ever saying anything or making any movement related to the muzzle at all. Just a clicker and some treats and absolute still and silence from me. Amazingly he got it in less than 5 mins and it showed me just how potent learning can be, even without verbal or physical input from humans.

Interactive toys - such as those by Nina Ottoson (sp?)

The bucket game (Google Chiraq Patel) which is a great skill to have developed for husbandry type tasks.

Some ideas to get you started. Remember: anything is a game if you act like it is