MORE STUFF TO TRAIN & ENTERTAIN YOUR DOG DURING SHELTER IN PLACE

RELIEVE DOG (& HUMAN) BOREDOM
Try this hide and seek exercise.

You can use this as a basis for many games. It’s simple. Just take some treats your dog loves (even kibble) and hide it in an area where they can’t see. Then, invite them in to find the treats. Here I also added a sit/stay before she could begin the hunt. This is the first time I’ve put food on the bed while she was eating, let alone a special cooked treat. For her to wait and listen to me shows great restraint.

So, try some of these things with your dog. Tightening up these things in the house will make it easier outdoors, too, where you can further train your dog to ignore distractions.

Tips:

1. Don’t do the same thing over and over, because it will become predictable and no longer challenging. In fact, in this example, Musik ran to the bed after her dinner the next evening, so I made sure NOT to have treats there, because I don’t want to rush her eating even more so she feels she needs to  run and get dessert.

2. When introducing a new game, do as you would with a child and make it easy for them to “win” at first, so they do not become frustrated & see it as too hard and give up. This is supposed to be enjoyable for everyone! So, if you see your dog getting flustered, take it down a notch. For instance, you can hide treats in front of them at first, then hide them in the open, THEN hide them in blankets and paper towel rolls, etc.

Happy Playing! For more free tips, check out: https://www.poochcoach.com/dog-training-tips/ And you can follow my adorable actor/model pup @ Musik Ulbrich here or @musikdog on Instagram.