Dancing Hearts Blog

2 Favorite Indoor Games to Play with Your Dog

2 Indoor games you can play when you're stuck inside with your dog

Stuck inside?  Dogs driving you crazy? Everyone a little stir crazy? Play some games!

After writing about what to do with your Stir Crazy dog in part one, I was flooded with old memories of long evenings and weekends inside with my pent up dogs.

We had so much fun! Laughing, playing, engaged, and loving every minute. The oldest memory comes from my first dog as a young woman, living on my own in an apartment in Chicago. I didn’t know how much Max would change my life when I picked out that cute little bundle of puppy love.

Kathy Kawalec with Lacee and dog Max in 1986.
Kathy with her horse Lacee, and her dog Max, enjoying a snowy winter day in 1986.

Game #1: “Find it”

Max loved this game. I can’t remember the exact number anymore, but I believe Max knew the names of 50 different toys/objects that he would go search for and bring to me upon request.

He was so good, that he could identify different colors of the identical object…like the yellow ball or the blue ball. And he could pick out different objects of the same color, like the blue ball and the blue rope.

This is a game that is fun, mentally stimulating and relatively quiet.

Step 1. Start with one of your dogs’ toys, and give it a name as you are playing. Let’s say it’s a red ball. After a few repetitions, your dog will associate that name with that particular object.

Step 2. Next, take the red ball, and put it behind your back or somewhere easy that your dog clearly knows where it is…you dog SAW you hiding it. Ask your dog in a playful way ..” where’s your red ball?” “find your red ball”…encouraging your dog to ‘find’ the red ball, either by touching it, and/or taking it, then giving it back to you. Celebrate success!

Step 3. Then, fake a throw of the red ball, and when your dog is looking away, quickly put the ball behind your back again. Repeat the playful encouragement to ‘find the red ball’. Have a party when your dog finds it!! Let your dog use its nose and its mind to figure out where the ball is. You can give hints, and if your dog seems confused at first…like flash the red ball out and back again. Or, look directly at where the ball is hiding.

Step 4. Now, you’ll hide the red ball in a more challenging location, like under the couch, or behind a pillow. Repeat. Then, you’ll hide it a little further away. Repeat this until you can hide the red ball just about anywhere, and your dog will find it…you can move around, pretending to look for the red ball with your dog until the game is really understood.

Step 5. Then, start the entire process over again with a different toy. And then another. At some point, you will be able to have two or three toys together and ask your dog to find a particular one, celebrating when your dog picks out the correct one.

Ultimately, your dog will be able to run over to the toy box and pick out the toy you have requested…for a really fun game!

 

Kathy Kawalec with Dallas, Reno and Haley
Kathy with her dogs in 1999 (l-r) Dallas, Reno and Haley. Dallas and Haley are waiting on the rainbow bridge. Reno is 15 and enjoying retirement in 2013.

Game #2 Hide ‘n Seek

I love this game for soooooo many reasons. It’s great fun. It teaches dogs to find family members. It teaches dogs to be attentive to you. It teaches dogs to be responsible for keeping you in their sight at all times, which is a crucial life skill. It’s an awesome way to spend quality time indoors when the weather is awful.

I remember frequently playing this game with my three dogs Dallas, Reno and Haley. Oh, my gosh, what fun we had…me, being inventive on where I could quickly hide. The dogs, loving the game so much that I could barely hide from them because they became so savvy. I would often start an instant flash mob kind of game with no warning. We all had such a blast!

Everybody loves a game of hide ‘n seek, right? Two things that make this game possible is the way dogs gather information. Dogs look for movement and silhouettes. So, if you are perfectly still, and you camouflage your silhouette by being next to a wall, piece of furniture etc…you can ‘hide’ from your dog in plain sight…for just long enough to make the game interesting. Fun!

Step 1. You casually get up and go somewhere, like to the bathroom. As you enter the bathroom, you slip behind the door which is ajar, and just hold still. If your dog doesn’t come looking for you, make a fun sound, like whistle or smooch, or giggle. Then be quiet again, while your dog looks for you. Give hints if your dog doesn’t get it at first. When your dog ‘finds’ you: laugh, play and run out of your hiding place, while your dog runs with you. “Good dog!”

Step 2. The moment you see your dog gets distracted…maybe she runs to get a toy because you are in a playful mood…you go hide again. Duck behind a chair, around a corner, hugging the wall, behind a door, on the other side of the bed…you get the idea. Again, give fun little sound hints if your dog isn’t actively looking for you, but do be a bit patient, so they get to ‘work’ at it.

Step 3. At some point, you’ll find that you can’t get away from your dog. As soon as that happens, you’ll need a distraction. The best one is to throw a toy and while your dog runs for the toy, you go in the other direction and hide quickly. Or, you can pretend to ‘end the game’ and as soon as your dog relaxes and goes to do something else…you go hide again.

If your dog LOVES the game, you can hide sneakily. If your dog isn’t that excited yet, then let your dog see you hide. What you’ll do is the human version of the play bow towards your dog, laugh and go running away, inviting your dog to chase you. Then you duck into your hiding place. Your dog will easily find you, and you go running away again to a new place while your dog chases you again. Such fun!!

Step 4. Play with another person…or more! While one person hides, the other person invites the dog to ‘find Mary’. “where’s Mary?” “where did Mary go?” “Find Mary”…you can help at first if needed. Then while the dog and Mary are partying about the find, you go hide and Mary repeats the process. “Where’s John?”

Step 5. You can move this game to multiple levels of your house, like upstairs or the basement. And, you can move it outside when it’s nice again. This game is a great way to get a kick a** recall on your dog.

 

These two games are at the top of my list…although with my ‘pack’ I don’t play these games much. I DO engage in hide’n seek outside when I can…it is such fun!

I have a few other great games…and I will write about them in the future…beware. lol.

I’d love to hear how you and your dogs enjoy playing these games. Leave a comment and let me know.

And, please spread the word…share this post with your friends!

xoxo
Kathy

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4 Responses

  1. We’ve played similar games and instead of giving Bandit treats, he has to wait in the kitchen while I hide them, then release him with a “find them”. He gets to use his nose and has gotten really good and have had to get more creative with the hiding spots. He has shown no interest in learning to open and close doors. He would stand in the cold rather than push on a door to come inside. It’s a big game “O you got locked out”. Toys are something you take out of the toy box and leave. He had never learned to play or tug as a pup so we go with the nose.

  2. Our version of find it includes all 3 dogs. They sit/stay in the kitchen, I hide a treat, then only one gets to go find it while the other 2 have to remain in a sit stay. Really works their brains to have the control to sit while one of them gets to go find it. Of course they are rewarded for their good stay and then we repeat with the next dog in line getting to find it. Then I mix it up so if they remain in the same order they find it in a different order from the first time through. Fun!!

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