[PoppyTheDoxie]

In the morning Poppy, who's 6 months old, gets a walk. I've been taking her to an empty tennis court to play fetch, tug, and work on our training like obedience and some new tricks. I'll hold her toy, as for a behaviour or two, throw the toy and chase her, grab it and she chases me, then tug a bit. We'll be out for an hour, sometimes a little longer.

Then in the afternoon she gets a walk and a bit of play inside, some fetch or tug and running around.

I tried teaching her some scent games but she knocks the cups over so easily so I want to buy small cones to hide treats under. The idea will be for her to smell numerous cones and sit near the one with the treats (of course we will start with only one or two cones!).

Just wondering if there are any other mental or physical games you like to play with your dogs?

 

[Dawnben]

how about a flirt pole
The Flirt Pole: Dog Toy or Life Changer? | notes from a dog walker

 

[PoppyTheDoxie]

Dawnben that's awesome! Haven't seen this before. She kind of understands that she isn't allowed to eat or grab something unless I say so, so this will be great practice. Thanks!

 

[Ursie]

I second the flirt pole. My dogs love it. Another thing you could try is hide and seek. Let your dog wait, hide somewhere in the house, and let them find you. I reward with a treat when they find me. It's one of my dog's favorite games.

 

[Tilden]

I'll second hide and seek. You can use it as a game and to help train commands like stay and come. My dog liked it so much as a puppy that one evening, when I realized he wasn't hanging out nearby, as he usually does, and he didn't come when called, I started searching the house for him. I found him hiding behind a door I often hid behind when playing hide and seek with him. When I found him, he dropped the toy in his mouth at my feet. If he could have spoken, I'm sure he would have told me, "Good girl!" Since he couldn't give me an actual treat, as I give him when he "finds"me, I guess he felt he could substitute the toy (and get me to throw it for him as well).

If your dog is quick to pick up tricks, that's another thing that can absorb some of that energy and keep him/her from getting bored. If you have a friend/neighbor with a friendly dog with whom your dog gets along, a play date between the two dogs can use up a lot of energy too.

 

[busannie]

You can put her scentwork items in cardboard boxes to make it more challenging. For a puppy, I would start with all the boxes on their side, open. Then make sure that you only use smaller boxes when/if you begin to stand them upright (only when she's older), or you could just close them. You could teach her to indicate, or let her wrestle her way in to them to get the reward- if you want to eventually do nosework as a sport, I would guess the better option would be to teach an indication, but I think it's better exercise to let them get the stuff out themselves, like a jumbo food/toy puzzle.

https://youtu.be/DLnqhq2TpTA

https://youtu.be/BeGQvlsHmJc

Flirtpole is fun, but make sure not to overdo it with a young dog, and keep crazy (flipping/twisting) jumping to a minimum- some people say that all jumping should be avoided with dachshunds and other similar breeds, and that may be valid, but I let mine do some "risky" things, and tend to be of the camp that it's better to keep them fit and active by doing stuff, in the hopes that their spine has sufficient support.
https://youtu.be/YaW3T_UtbBI

https://youtu.be/uR6gn2cXHog

If she likes to play ball, you could try giving her larger ones to chase/try to fetch. I would only do this in an enclosed area, as some dogs obsess and won't come back/can't drive the ball well enough to return to you with it. I like to use the $1-2 latex ones, since they're cheap and hard for them to get ahold of unless they deflate some or the dog pins them in a corner, but you could also try a soccer or other sports ball (my dogs chewed a little piece of the soccer ball cover and used that to carry the ball instead, though a rubber/vinyl volleyball worked well for a while), though I would steer clear of anything with an abrasive texture, as if the dog pushes it with their nose, it will make it bleed . There is a hard plastic ball that holds up much better to abuse, but as the dog chews/scratches at it, it too gets rough areas that abrade the snout.

Of my guys, Annie would go out, run the ball a bit, then bring it back; Bus would go out, run/wrestle the ball, and be oblivious to where he was going, so I'd often have to stop him and redirect into an appropriate direction. He gets mad that he can't make the ball go where he wants, and tries hard to pick them up and/or pop them whereas Annie would usually only push the ball with her nose, unless there was a spot that she could dismantle it from. It's good exercise for them, because they usually not only chase the ball, but also wrestle with it too trying to get it to "cooperate".