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Mental games

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doggie1

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Does anyone have any links to mental games that don't involve paying out a lot of money? The ones I find all involve finding treats, I wondered if any one had any other types they did or know of. We give the dog toys which you can hide treats in and hide some around the house, but he needs more - I think.

Thanks in advance.
 
I love hide and seek. The way this works for us is I will show him a toy, say 'hide and seek' and ask him to wait. Then I go into another room and hide it, and call 'OK! Find it!' He comes in, finds the toy, and then brings it to me in exchange for a treat (just low-value kibble). I taught it in a number of stages (you need a good stay as a starting point), but it all fell into place remarkably easily. And you can of course make it harder or easier by where you hide the toy.

We also sometimes play 'find Mummy' and 'find Daddy', which is useful when I come in and aren't sure where OH is!

I also like impulse control games. Have a look for Kikopup's 'It's Yer Choice' on YouTube. I built on this to make a game with a couple of carpet tiles. After teaching J to stand on a tile (front legs only as he's so long!) I'd get him to stay at one end of the kitchen and put a treat at the far end. Then I'd put a tile in front of him and get him to go to that, put another tile in front and got him to go to that, then took the first tile from behind him and put it in front of him... and so on till he could reach the treat. Don't expect impulse control to work all the time though - even when J could ace this, if I accidentally dropped a treat he'd snatch it up before I could tell him not to!

Have a look online for the 'three cups game', or 'the cup trick'.

There's also 101 things to do with a box: https://clickertraining.com/node/167 Or freeshaping Clicker Training Free Shaping will unfold your dog's learning abilities! A word of warning on freeshaping - after clicking and treating J for choosing to do pretty much anything, he got to the stage where the moment he saw the clicker he'd bark and then expect to be rewarded. And he gave me such a happy look - 'I did something Mum, didn't I?' - I usually buckled and gave him a treat....
 
JudyN said:
I love hide and seek. The way this works for us is I will show him a toy, say 'hide and seek' and ask him to wait. Then I go into another room and hide it, and call 'OK! Find it!' He comes in, finds the toy, and then brings it to me in exchange for a treat (just low-value kibble). I taught it in a number of stages (you need a good stay as a starting point), but it all fell into place remarkably easily. And you can of course make it harder or easier by where you hide the toy.

We also sometimes play 'find Mummy' and 'find Daddy', which is useful when I come in and aren't sure where OH is!

I also like impulse control games. Have a look for Kikopup's 'It's Yer Choice' on YouTube. I built on this to make a game with a couple of carpet tiles. After teaching J to stand on a tile (front legs only as he's so long!) I'd get him to stay at one end of the kitchen and put a treat at the far end. Then I'd put a tile in front of him and get him to go to that, put another tile in front and got him to go to that, then took the first tile from behind him and put it in front of him... and so on till he could reach the treat. Don't expect impulse control to work all the time though - even when J could ace this, if I accidentally dropped a treat he'd snatch it up before I could tell him not to!

Have a look online for the 'three cups game', or 'the cup trick'.

There's also 101 things to do with a box: https://clickertraining.com/node/167 Or freeshaping Clicker Training Free Shaping will unfold your dog's learning abilities! A word of warning on freeshaping - after clicking and treating J for choosing to do pretty much anything, he got to the stage where the moment he saw the clicker he'd bark and then expect to be rewarded. And he gave me such a happy look - 'I did something Mum, didn't I?' - I usually buckled and gave him a treat....
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That's brilliant, thanks so much for the post. It is hard to ignore cuteness, I taught D to sit before he got a treat as he would just sit and beg, but didn't seem to know what 'sit' was. Now if I just call his name on the walk, he comes and sits for a treat and I have to give him one even though I didn't say 'come'. (I know I said he's a nightmare on walks, well he is if he sees a dog, but he has made a lot of progress. He will sit and stay on a walk. His record is me going 8 steps away! I also have recall on his long lead - as long as another dog is not there!)
 
Yeah... Jasper has this cute habit of bringing me my slipper-socks when we come in from a walk. Only he brings them when I'm already juggling keys, coat, lead, muzzle, shoes... He also brings them to me when I've just taken them off to get ready for a walk... and he has been known to snatch them out of my hand so he can give them to me again. so now when I take them off I have to put them out of his reach, and when we come in I get them so I can put them somewhere he can get them and give them to me.........
 
JudyN said:
Yeah... Jasper has this cute habit of bringing me my slipper-socks when we come in from a walk. Only he brings them when I'm already juggling keys, coat, lead, muzzle, shoes... He also brings them to me when I've just taken them off to get ready for a walk... and he has been known to snatch them out of my hand so he can give them to me again. so now when I take them off I have to put them out of his reach, and when we come in I get them so I can put them somewhere he can get them and give them to me.........
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Sweet:)
 
Ha! I get something like this when we get home after a walk. Jimmy likes to loiter outside the door and to coax him in, if he doesn't go on his own accord, I throw a treat in the door and he follows. Quite often he'll stand outside the door and look up at me as if to say "where's my treat?". Sometimes I don't have one with me and it's a bit of a friendly stand-off! :D:D:D
 
JudyN said:
Jasper has this cute habit of bringing me my slipper-socks when we come in from a walk
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Timber steals mine and runs off to hide them. Maybe he is playing mind games with me.

Nose targeting is good, not just as an exercise but also to position your dog in a place if you need to.
 
For mental games Misty loves playing hide and seek. We play it with her toys but my favourite is when the two of us play it. I hide and then whistle for her (same as I do for recall), then when she finally finds me we have a good old ruff n tumble cuddle (she has too many treats as it is!). The trickiest bit is getting her to close her eyes and count to ten, she’s a bit of a cheat at that!
 
Sezzy said:
For mental games Misty loves playing hide and seek. We play it with her toys but my favourite is when the two of us play it. I hide and then whistle for her (same as I do for recall), then when she finally finds me we have a good old ruff n tumble cuddle (she has too many treats as it is!). The trickiest bit is getting her to close her eyes and count to ten, she’s a bit of a cheat at that!
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Me and Dennis play hide and seek together to! Love this!
 
That made me chuckle @arealhuman - I can just imagine how it went! he he
 
I play hide and seek, but the house is a bit small and there aren't many places to hide!
 
doggie1 said:
I play hide and seek, but the house is a bit small and there aren't many places to hide!
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Dennis knows all of my spots now to! I can still fool thee black beast on occasions though!
 
Josie said:
Dennis knows all of my spots now to! I can still fool thee black beast on occasions though!
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When I started playing hide and seek with him, he used to look bemused when he found me, it didn't take long in my house. He had a look on his face to say 'You're here, what's all the fuss about!'
 
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I tried to play hide and seek when walking J in the woods with OH - one of us would stay with J, the other would go and hide behind a tree. No dice - he hates his 'pack' splitting up on walks, he doesn't trust either of us to go wandering off on our own.

If he follows you round the house, I'd start with working on 'stay' and 'wait' and progress to literally just hiding behind the door of the room. Or behind a chair in the room. Then he can get the basic idea while still having the fun of 'finding' you.
 
There is a really good group on Facebook called Beyond the Bowl - Canine Enrichment, people do share their different ideas on there. I think a lot is treat based but never know there might be something on there that can help.
 
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