Teaching Games to the Dogs and Staff (Part 1)
This month we are talking about how to make your off-leash play environment enriching to the dogs. You can choose to incorporate activities based on dog difficulty level, staffing requirements or supply costs. But now what? You’ve got the equipment, you’ve got the space, but now how do you teach the dogs and staff?
We’re providing some resources to help you! But first, a few ground rules everyone should understand
- The dog sets the pace for the game. Part of the reason you add environmental enrichment to your daycare is to allow the dogs time to explore and learn their environment. That means they need time to think! Let the dog set the pace of the game and don’t try to rush them.
- Make it easy at first. Set the dog up for success by making things easy at first. You can’t make things too easy initially. If the dog is successful, he’ll be motivated to continue the game.
- Reward heavily. Don’t be stingy with your reward. Any success should be greeted with a heavy dose of praise, petting, or other rewards for the dogs. Just make sure you are rewarding the dog with something fun for him!
- Keep it fun. Don’t forget that both the staff AND the dogs should be having fun. If the staff is frustrated or the dog’s body language shows he is not enjoying the activity, reassess what you are doing and make appropriate changes.
With those ground rules, let’s look at how to enjoy some of the activities
Balloons, Bubbles and Ball Pit – three activities that require little training on the part of your staff or the dogs. Just provide the balloons, bubbles, or ball pit and encourage the dogs to have fun! You may try putting treats in the balloons, or hiding treats in the ball pit. As always, if food is involved you’ll want to be careful to observe signs of resource guarding if you do these activities with more than one dog at a time.
Gogo Dog Pals – this is a remote control made for dogs. The price point is relatively high, but the device is made to be more durable and harder to grab than a basic remote toy for children. This toy is best for dogs that have a natural desire to chase things and probably won’t be much interest to couch potatoes. It requires training only in the sense of keeping it relatively easy initially so the dog learns to chase it. Also be careful that you don’t scare a dog by making the remote car chase the dog!
Nose Work – this game requires some easy training but since it’s based on a dog’s natural ability to use his nose, training goes quickly! The video shows the steps to use:
- Get a dog comfortable looking for treats on the ground
- Encourage the dog to find treats in a box (and be comfortable putting his head in the box to retrieve the treats)
- Teach the dog to find one treat among several boxes
This is a great game that dogs of all ages and energy levels can do.
Woofstick – this is another game that requires little to no training. It’s best for dogs that have a natural desire to chase moving objects. Be careful not to raise the woofstick too high which might cause the dog to jump in the air and hurt himself.
