What is your favorite game to play with your dog?
ByQuestion by Chad L: What is your favorite game to play with your dog?
I have two Alaskan Malamutes, that obviously just love to be rambunctious and fun. I take them to do the dog park as often as possible, we’re the only ones there as of late thanks to the temperature but it’s still a blast for them! I don’t have a yard, and live in an apartment. I take them both on daily walks, off leash, and they are the love of my life. I’m only 21 though, and money is tight as far as taking them to more areas or having them in a “daycare” type while I’m at work during the day. They’re perfectly trained, and they just wander the apartment while I’m gone. When I get home though, they obviously want to play, and so do I.
I’m looking for some ideas then, maybe on new games to play or interesting toys that I haven’t heard of. If you’ve got a secret, let’s hear it.
Best answer to the most creative. I’ll add details as needed.
Unicandy is in the lead, as I’ll be trying that when I get home this evening. That sounds like it could be a blast.
Sadly, they’ll double team the effort and the game will end very quickly.
Bonnie-
It’s only a problem if you’re lazy. They don’t mind the apartment at all. It’s not a studio apartment, has 3 BR’s. Just no yard. They have plenty of room.
Best answer:
Answer by Caitlin
fetch/tease with toy/wrestling all mixed into one
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
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9 Comments
June 18th, 2011 at 1:24 am
Play games that will make them use their brains as much as their body – making a dog think will wear it out mentally as well as physically! Try things like “hide and seek” with their favourite toys. Show them their favourite toy and “pretend” to hide it in lots of different places, without showing them where you’ve actually hid it. Step back and release the dog to search – they’ll check everwhere you “pretended” to hide it and when they do find it, lots of praise!! Really gets them to work their brains.
Is how we determine a good “search” spaniel for the police too.
LOL! Why not try hiding two toys, each in a different place, once they get the hang of it! Double-teaming is what mine used to do to me (when I used to actually hide MYSELF, behind a door or such) Not fair when they do that at all!
June 18th, 2011 at 2:23 am
I taught my cocker spaniel how to play hide and seek. since hes a tracking dog, its good to get him to use his nose in a way it was meant for. he likes to cheat a lot though, so i can’t really hide it too far from where he is sitting.
i tell him, what to play hide and seek? i show him the toy im hiding, then i cover his eyes, hide the toy or put it on something near me then uncover his eyes and say go find it! sometimes he pulls away before im done hiding it and “Cheats”. little stinker, lol..
if he can’t find it after a while, i point and say, i think its over here, and he usually comes and goes to where i pointed. hes a smart little pooch, im not sure if all dogs are good at this game, but he loves it.
June 18th, 2011 at 3:11 am
I have a sib. Husky let me tell you I know they have so much life. They just make you want to be with them. Well please keep in mind I have a yard of about 2 acres so she has lots of room to run, but. I have a baby pool and she kinda came up with this game all by her self. I dont have a name for it so I will describe it to you. I sit on the back porch, and she has her favorite purple ball that she chose herself. She will bring it to me and I throw it. She in the midst of going to get the ball will splash right into the baby pool and fight with her ball and the other dogs of course join ( I have two others) and they play and then she brings it back and the second time around she gets teh ball and burries it and then runs all around where the ball fell I suppose she is sniffing it out and then uncovers it and back in the water again. Its so fun to watch its sooo funny. Anyways good luck makin up differnt ideas of ways to play
June 18th, 2011 at 3:45 am
Tug or flirt pole with my dogs. They also love to get in water and try to catch minnows in the creek behind our house.
Flirt pole..http://www.cosmos-staffords.co.uk/Training/Flirt_Pole/flirt_pole.html ( I know alot of pit bull owners do this but I have seen all kinds of dogs play with a flirt pole. It is great exercise for any dog)
Alaskan Malamutes love to pull. They were built to pull. So maybe you can get on line and find a harness and pull sled and start teaching them to do what they were bred for.
You will have to read up on it and learn. You cannot start them off with alot of weight right away or you will take a chance or bowing their legs out and crippling them.
If not what about fly ball…. http://flyballdogs.com/
I know this is taking the dog world by storm just like dock diving.
June 18th, 2011 at 4:00 am
I love that hide-and-seek idea!
There are also some great toys out there you might want to try. A company called kyjen makes toys called “puzzle plush” dog toys. I have the “cagey cube” – it is a plush box with all sorts of different shaped plush squeaky toys inside. My dog has to dig into it to try to get the toys out. It took him awhile to figure it out, but I hid a bone in there once and now he totally gets it.
He’s getting really good at it, though, so now I turned it into a game. I pull and tug on the box while he’s trying to get the toys out to make it tougher for him. Then, once he gets it, I chase him around and “try” to steal it from him. He loves it!!!
June 18th, 2011 at 4:02 am
hide and seek, of course.
tag.
the flirt pole is fun.
we also enjoy 101 things to do with a Box. (more fun than it sounds, haha)
http://www.clickertraining.com/node/167
we also practice squirrel chasing (don’t worry, we’ve never caught one.) It teaches her self control. She must hold a drop, and then I release her. BUT she doesn’t get to chase after all of them, and sometimes I will chase the squirrel. That way she never knows when the pay off will happen.
June 18th, 2011 at 4:44 am
My dogs like to dig for treasure. I take a few treats with us to the dog park and bury them in the sand then let em go for it.
My lab pup also loves to go to the park–the kids one, not the dog one. Her favorite thing to do is slide down the toddler slide. Obviously I have to be careful about her not jumping off the top (which she wanted to try at the beginning) but now she just climbs and slides over and over again. Kids think it’s hilarious to watch her wait in line with them then wait until I say “Go for it!” before she slides.
When the weather is absolutely terrible we pop bubbles inside. It’s pretty fun to watch them try to pop each one before they touch the ground. My older dog wasn’t into it at first (she was actually kind of scared of the bubbles), but after seeing the attention the puppy would get she joined right in.
My dogs also dance. If my girls turn on some music and start to dance around crazy the dogs join in. They have no idea what they’re doing, they are just bouncing around having fun (the girls and the dogs).
Sometimes we have a ball-free-for-all where I scatter about 10 tennis balls at once and let them grab them and bring them to me as fast as they can (of course they are both crazy about fetch in the first place, so there was no training at all for that game).
They also love empty two-liter pop bottles. I just take off the cap and let them go. It bounces and rolls different than any of their other toys and it’s hard for them to actually bite it (your big dogs might not have that problem, though). As soon as they really start chomping on it I take it away before they can eat it. Definitely a game that needs supervision.
Their favorite treat is ice chips. I have a fairly large tiled kitchen floor so I’ll slide a couple of ice chips on it and watch the chase.
Hide-and-Seek is another fun game, but my english setter has such a great nose that the lab puppy usually doesn’t stand a chance against her. It sounds like you and your dogs really enjoy each other, so I’m positive that anything you do with excitement is going to become their favorite game.
June 18th, 2011 at 5:17 am
Well my dogs fave game is hide and seek, they just love all that searching and using their sense of smell oh and the excitment once they have found you is unbelievable!! as for making a home made toy try putting a tennis ball inside an old clean sock and tie a knot at the end, my dog has hours of fun with it and its become her fave and the shop bought ones get ignored now!! my dog also loves to play to music, i dont know why but she just loves it when i dance to it she bounces about with excitment but as your in an apartment perhaps the dancing wont be for you,hope my ideas are helpful and bring hours of fun to you and your dogs, have fun!!
June 18th, 2011 at 5:44 am
Why do you own two large dogs when you live in an apartment?