Dog Games

Have you ever considered playing dog games with your pooches? If not you are missing out on a fun time. I don't mean just going outside and tossing a ball or Frisbee with them although that can be fun to do. We sometimes go out with a bubble wand and soap bubble solution and blow bubbles which they will chase and leap for.

I'm talking more about inside games? We have two games that we like to play inside. One is hide and seek where we take mini marshmallows and one of us will take the dogs out back and the other will then hide (mostly in easy to find places) the individual marshmallows. We will then ask the dogs if they want to play hide and seek and let them in all at once. They know immediately what the game is about and will go in search of those hidden marshmallows. When one gets close we'll tell them they are getting warm and then they know to look more carefully.

Then there is the game we call 'cereal'. We use cheerio's or puffed rice. Both are okay for dogs to eat. They will all sit patiently in front of me while I get the bag open and then I toss a handful of 'cereal' into the air and they will all go to eating it one piece at a time competing with each other to see who gets the most. While they are milling around I'll toss a few more handfuls around Just make sure your floor is clean before you toss the cereal. I learned this cereal game from an old Chief Master Sergeant I worked with when I was in the USAF. When he would come home from a temporary tour of duty he liked a few minutes with his wife to get caught up. He had several children so he would throw 15 dimes out on his front lawn and tell the kids he threw twenty dimes for them to find. They would be looking for those extra dimes long enough for him and his wife to have some private time. Cereal will keep the dogs looking long after it has already been eaten as they will look for those few pieces that may have gotten in the fold of their bed or slipped under the sofa.

These games have minimal educational value for your dog/s but it is something they learn fast and love to do. Sometimes one of the dogs - usually Bozwell - will go into the pantry with me and go over and nose the bag of cereal when he wants to play.

If you have never done it give it a try. You will find they pick up on it fast and it is as much fun for you as it is for the dogs.