Games to play inside with your dog?

2787 Views 15 Replies 7 Participants Last post by tirluc, Jul 2, 2009

ara28

Discussion Starter · Jun 29, 2009

It is HOT here. So hot in fact that yesterday after washing my car I ran inside the house for 2 minutes at the most and when I came back out to dry my car, it was already dry!

So, I can't walk my dog until after 9 at night because lately, even at 8ish its still in the upper 90s.

I play go fetch the wubba, tug with the wubba, go find me and that's about it. The go find me is fun except for there's not many places to hide in my house so I end up hiding in the same places and it doesn't stay interesting for very long. I also do short trick training sessions with him and things of that nature.

What are some other things you can do to play with your dog inside?

I know I can give him a kong and a buster cube and what not, but I'm interested in things I can do WITH him, not give him to do.

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JSporty1

· #2 · Jun 29, 2009 (Edited)

Gir is so obsessed with her Kong ball that she can chase that thing for hours on end. We're going through the same type of heat wave here in St. Louis, so I don't take her on long walks until the sun is down. In the meantime I throw her ball, play tug with her rubber tug rings, let her run around the apartment, and try and work on commands and training. She's got sit, down, and shake, but stay is proving problematic.
I've never had such an energetic, playful dog before. Mostly I love it, and wouldn't have my little pitty bull any other way. Sometimes, I wish she would take a nap or something

edit: I just thought of another game Gir loves. Because she's SO in love with her Kong ball, I sometimes hide it in random places and tell her "get the ball ball!!!" She'll run around the apartment like a crazed dog, looking and sniffing everywhere until she finds it.

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ara28

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 29, 2009

JSporty1 said:
Gir is so obsessed with her Kong ball that she can chase that thing for hours on end. We're going through the same type of heat wave here in St. Louis, so I don't take her on long walks until the sun is down. In the meantime I throw her ball, play tug with her rubber tug rings, let her run around the apartment, and try and work on commands and training. She's got sit, down, and shake, but stay is proving problematic.
I've never had such an energetic, playful dog before. Mostly I love it, and wouldn't have my little pitty bull any other way. Sometimes, I wish she would take a nap or something

edit: I just thought of another game Gir loves. Because she's SO in love with her Kong ball, I sometimes hide it in random places and tell her "get the ball ball!!!" She'll run around the apartment like a crazed dog, looking and sniffing everywhere until she finds it.

lol. we do that with his monkey. I'll put him in a sit stay go hide the monkey then come back to him and say 'where's monkey?' He loves that game too.

I use the hide and seek games to work on stay. When I hide my self I put him in a sit stay or a down stay then go hide and say 'dohggy come!' so we work on stay and come with just that one game.

tirluc

· #4 · Jun 29, 2009

there is always the thing i did w/ my old Lacey girl....we did spelling games....in less than 2 wks she knew the spelling of about 20 things and would retrieve each one spelled out....it tapered off from there in her learning new things only b/c i couldn't keep up w/ her, but by the time she was 6, she knew the spelling of 67 items and would pick out the one i spelled from amongst about 25 toys thrown out (tossed from the bag at ramdom)....

then there's colours (get different coloured items and teach them....number cubes....and the list goes on.....

JSporty1

· #5 · Jun 29, 2009

tirluc said:
there is always the thing i did w/ my old Lacey girl....we did spelling games....in less than 2 wks she knew the spelling of about 20 things and would retrieve each one spelled out....it tapered off from there in her learning new things only b/c i couldn't keep up w/ her, but by the time she was 6, she knew the spelling of 67 items and would pick out the one i spelled from amongst about 25 toys thrown out (tossed from the bag at ramdom)....

then there's colours (get different coloured items and teach them....number cubes....and the list goes on.....

That's impressive. What kind of dog was she?

Puppy_love_122

· #6 · Jun 29, 2009

Have you tried hide and seek with treats instead of yourself? My dogs really like to play that. I hide a few treats and tell them to find 'em and they run around like nuts searching and sniffing for them.

tirluc

· #7 · Jun 30, 2009

JSporty1 said:
That's impressive. What kind of dog was she?

she was a Border Collie and the smartest damn dog i've ever met....learned things (like new words) w/in 2 times of showing (i.e., show her a toy, tell her "this is a bunny, B U N N Y" throw the toy, repeat and then put the toy amongst every thing else) and she had it, never forgot....and it wasn't just toys...i could use tape, pencils, scissors (yup, used them once), keys, remotes, anything

God, i miss my sweet girl....she was truly one in million

JSporty1

· #8 · Jun 30, 2009

tirluc said:
she was a Border Collie and the smartest damn dog i've ever met....learned things (like new words) w/in 2 times of showing (i.e., show her a toy, tell her "this is a bunny, B U N N Y" throw the toy, repeat and then put the toy amongst every thing else) and she had it, never forgot....and it wasn't just toys...i could use tape, pencils, scissors (yup, used them once), keys, remotes, anything

God, i miss my sweet girl....she was truly one in million

Wow. Gir is nowhere near that smart. I am truly impressed. What an amazing dog!

melgrj7

· #9 · Jun 30, 2009

We play fetch games, hiding games (where either one of us hides, or I make one of the dogs hide, or I hide toys), who can do the trick the fastest, just general playing, training sessions . . . Nash likes to run around with the basketball in his mouth.

ara28

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jun 30, 2009

melgrj7 said:
We play fetch games, hiding games (where either one of us hides, or I make one of the dogs hide, or I hide toys), who can do the trick the fastest, just general playing, training sessions . . . Nash likes to run around with the basketball in his mouth.

How do you make one of the dogs hide?

melgrj7

· #11 · Jul 1, 2009

ara28 said:
How do you make one of the dogs hide?

Now I just tell them to "go hide" and they run and "hide" somewhere (although they pick horrible hiding spots). I used to lead them to places while saying "go hide" and put them in a sit or down stay. Then I would send one of the other dogs off to find them, or Julie would look for them. They caught onto the game quickly and they all love it. Nash is still learning to "go hide" though.

winniec777

· #12 · Jul 1, 2009

I made a small flirt pole for use inside that my dog likes to chase. Just a short piece of molding with twine and a stuffed animal tied to the end. She'll chaw through the twine if I don't watch it, but we have fun running around the house with it.

We also play "who's faster?" which is a modified form of fetch/soccer. She sets herself up parallel to me and I say, "Who's faster? Poca or the ball?" Then I count 1...2...3...and kick the ball down the hall. If she catches the ball before it goes by her, she's proven she's faster and gets lots of praise and hugs for being such a speedy girl. If the ball gets by her (10-20% of the time), she gets the pleasure of chasing it down. She sometimes tries to cheat and gets in front of me to block the kick. I'll either bring her back to my side or try to get the ball between her legs. That is so funny to see.

Another version of "who's faster" is to throw the ball up the stairs - she tries to beat it to the top. A half hour of that wears her out, thank goodness. Or if I'm feeling like I could use some exercise, too, I play "who's faster" with me as her opponent. Mommy is rarely faster, believe me! BTW, we use racquet balls a lot for this game because they bounce around a lot, making her move even faster, and they don't do a lot of damage if they hit something.

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tirluc

· #13 · Jul 1, 2009

winnie, be careful w/ the racquet balls...w/ the smooth surface and smaller size they can easily get lodged back in the throat and cause choking....a friend used to take and put rubber bands and strings around hers (changed regularly) to keep some sort of surface on them after having almost lost her Lab once....just a cautionary warning of another of our many paranoid "don't let your dogs do this" type things

....but better safe than sorry....

winniec777

· #14 · Jul 1, 2009

tirluc said:
winnie, be careful w/ the racquet balls...w/ the smooth surface and smaller size they can easily get lodged back in the throat and cause choking....a friend used to take and put rubber bands and strings around hers (changed regularly) to keep some sort of surface on them after having almost lost her Lab once....just a cautionary warning of another of our many paranoid "don't let your dogs do this" type things....but better safe than sorry....

Yikes! I've never heard of a problem with racquet balls. In fact, we switched to using them more often than tennis balls because the vet advised it - said tennis balls could be too abrasive on her teeth since she likes to gnaw on them. I'll definitely watch out now and will be sure not to leave them out where she can get at them without us watching. We generally put them away but have to confess one sometimes gets lost under furniture. Thanks for the warning!

MafiaPrincess

· #15 · Jul 1, 2009

I like hide and go seek with cookies. Start obvious, and get harder over time. Pick one room hide say 5, encourage dog to sniff the cookies out.

tirluc

· #16 · Jul 2, 2009 (Edited)

winniec777 said:
Yikes! I've never heard of a problem with racquet balls. In fact, we switched to using them more often than tennis balls because the vet advised it - said tennis balls could be too abrasive on her teeth since she likes to gnaw on them. I'll definitely watch out now and will be sure not to leave them out where she can get at them without us watching. We generally put them away but have to confess one sometimes gets lost under furniture. Thanks for the warning!

yeah, i know about the abrasiveness of the tennis balls...mine all have their teeth worn down a bit from catching them....luckily mine only have them to play ball w/ and can't use them as chew toys.....

and, you're welcome.....maybe we need to come up w/ the perfect ball...about the best i've found are the blue/orange ones you can get for the chuck-it's....

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