Check out one of our followers really getting into the Train Your Dog Month spirit!
Here they are practicing a scavenger hunt as a reward for a really long and very impressive recall with their Cockapoo Riley!
So, who else had fun with scavenger hunting today?
Did you know that domestic dogs have evolved from scavenging animals? That probably explains some of your dog’s behaviour!
Instead of your dog getting his scavenging-jollies by counter surfing and stealing, let’s give them an acceptable outlet for this behaviour with our scavenger-hunting games.
Time Allowance:
Each game will take you 30 seconds – 3 minutes to set up. Your dog does all the work!
Try two or three of these games today and tomorrow.
Family Participation:
Fun for all the family – children will love to scatter food (it’s just like making a mess that someone else cleans up!), hide food and set up sniffing courses.
Always supervise child-dog interactions and make sure children learn to leave the dog alone while he works on his puzzle.
Top Tip for Today’s Games:
Add a cue to these games so that you can ask your dog to search. Say “go find it” just before releasing your dog to search.
The easiest way to feed your dog, while still providing them with a challenge, is to have them sniff out every piece of food.
Take your dog’s food and instead of feeding them from the bowl toss their food on the ground.
Beginner Level ideas:
Advanced Level ideas:
A slightly more formal version of scatter feeding involves setting up specific hiding places for your dog’s food.
Beginner Level ideas:
Advanced Level ideas:
Check out our video guide to simple Kong stuffing:
You and your dog are probably hooked on scent games by now – YAY!
How about setting up a sniffing-games course? Use various household items such as boxes, overturned chairs, cones, plant pots or dog beds.
Set up each course while your dog is in another room and then release them to search.
Beginner Level ideas:
Advanced Level ideas:
Sniffing games are perfect for rainy days or for dogs on limited activity!
That’s Day 1 done – introduce these games today and tomorrow and we will have new games for you and your dog on Wednesday.
Now, don’t forget to share how you are getting on – we would love to see video and pics of your dogs sniffing out their dinner and see how you have come up with ways to challenge your dog’s nose!
Go on, show off….
Animals naturally want to work for food – when we feed them for free they may not have acceptable outlets for those feeding behaviours that they don’t need for finding food…
Dogs come with lots of behaviours that are inbuilt; most of these behaviours are in conflict with what we humans like…
Providing your dog with entertainment and enrichment will allow your dog to carry out these behaviours in a more appropriate and acceptable way.
So, this week we are going to work on teaching your dog to earn their keep by working for their food (food is currency to dogs!). This way your dog gets lots of opportunities to carry out doggie behaviours (without annoying the humans!) and you get plenty of time to relax while your dog does the work (this is lazy dog training)!
Dogs with plenty of mental exercise (along with appropriate physical exercise) are happy, healthy and a joy to live with.
See? This is more than just fun and games…
You can download a more printer friendly, but abbreviated, version of the Week 1 plan here.
Wohoo! Let’s start preparing for the start of our plans on Monday – here’s your first task:
Rather than introduce lots and lots of treats for our training program, we will use our dogs’ regular, everyday food in our games.
But, no more getting their food for free – this program will encourage your dog to work for each piece!
No matter what you feed your dog you will be able to use this food, rather than in a food bowl, for many of our games over the entire program.
Here’s our video showing you how to use your dog’s regular food for training games:
Option 1 (low-cal)
Option 2 (higher-cal)
If you are worried about handling wet or raw food during training exercises, keep a pair of surgical gloves with your training-mix so that you are always ready to reward desired behaviour.
You’ve signed up and are getting ready, but what’s this training program really about?
Our Train Your Dog Month 2016 program is all about foundation skills – these are the ones that you will build your continued training upon.
So often we go straight into the sexy stuff without paying attention to the training that supports our dog’s life long learning – that can be why our training sometimes crumbles and collapses.
Spending a little time (remember, just ten minutes each day) putting these basics in place provides you and your dog the perfect foundation on which to build.
Reality Check
As important as these exercises and having the right foundation are, it isn’t a magic-wand!
Just signing up for our program will not ‘fix’ any behaviour problems you might experience with your dog. But, the exercises we will introduce will help work on some of the root causes to training and behaviour issues from pulling on lead to aggression.
The plan
Each week is themed and we will post three-to-five different exercises for you to work on during that week.
Every couple of days or so, we will post a new exercise with options to suit you at various stages of training. We will provide video and printer friendly versions too so that everyone can participate.
Remember, just ten minutes a day but if you want to do more that’s OK too!
Be ready for your first plan on Monday and Happy 2016!
Happy New Year!
Ringing in 2016 means it’s time to start getting ready for this month’s dog training challenge!
What do I need for Week 1?
Sounds weird? Well, we’re going to keep you guessing for a couple more days!
Here at AniEd we have just launched our new blog and to celebrate we will be bringing you a fun training program for you and your dog starting in January 2016.
Just follow our blog so that each of the plans makes it straight to your inbox – and don’t forget to share with your friends too!
AniEd Ireland 