Boredom busters for humans and dogs

[Peartree]

Snow bunny suggested that I found some exercises for gun dogs on another thread, but I thought we could all add our suggestions to this thread for general things to keep our dogs busy. I’ll start off with a screen shot of things to do to make your walk more interesting.

 

[Peartree]

If you are on face book then I recommend joining this public group to teach your dogs easy tricks that can be done around the house. It’s free and the instructions are very well explained.

 

[Natalie]

Any tips on calming down a dog that gets so excited at tricks in the house, he just starts throwing any old behaviour out, snatching treats from my hand and even jumping up (which is rare for him now)
I only use kibble for this, not even using higher value treats.

 

[Peartree]

I’m no expert at all but my suggestion would be to work on being calm around kibble as my trick! Is it the doing stuff with you that is so exciting or that fact that he’s getting kibble? If it’s the kibble I wouldn’t be having it on me and I would be using it less. ie asking for longer chains of behaviours before rewarding. If the food is on a high shelf next to you then you can reward calmly placing it on the floor and giving him permission to take it.

 

[snowbunny]

Any tips on calming down a dog that gets so excited at tricks in the house, he just starts throwing any old behaviour out, snatching treats from my hand and even jumping up (which is rare for him now)
I only use kibble for this, not even using higher value treats.

You could try to teach him to breathe deeply on cue and then use that as a calming mechanism. It works well for Shadow who does the same thing

 

[Beanwood]

In addition to the great comments for @Natalie, Otter can get really overexcited very quickly, especially right now! I sit on the floor with a snuffle mat and help her hunt out the kibble, gradually extending into hand touch and zen face. If she still gets a bit frantic we go back to gentle kibble hunting in the snuffle mat. If that doesn't work, I lock myself in her crate with a packet of bourbon creams.

 

[Joy]

@Natalie You could try not having the treats on you but in a pot on a table. Show Monty the treats are there, do a simple movement (to start with could be just moving by your side away from the table), then mark and return to the table and take a treat from the pot and put it on the floor for him to eat.

I joined a couple of Facebook groups which look fun (just waiting to be over this bug so I can get cracking again). One is called 'The Big Dog Dance 2020' ( couldn't get a link to work)
The person running it (Jennifer Bartlett) posts detailed instructions for how to train different tricks and the idea is that people post videos of their dogs doing the tricks and then she will eventually edit it and turn it into a group video set to music.

 

[Natalie]

Is it the doing stuff with you that is so exciting or that fact that he’s getting kibble?

For the first 3-5 clicks, it's absolute excitement that he's doing something. Then after that, it's all about the kibble.

You could try to teach him to breathe deeply on cue and then use that as a calming mechanism. It works well for Shadow who does the same thing

I remmebr you mentioning this agaes ago - I think he could benefit from this - did you post a link before?

You could try not having the treats on you but in a pot on a table.

If it’s the kibble I wouldn’t be having it on me and I would be using it

If the food is on a high shelf next to you

I tend to have the pot of kibble on the mantelpiece whcih is quite high, well above his head hight, and I take about 6 pieces out at a time to hold in my hand. . If I pause, he just goes straight to my kibble hand and starts nosing at it, and if I've run out, he sits under the pot of treatson the mantelpeice.

I've tried a scatter feed across the carpet, but this is not at all calming for him - even when it's in the long shaggy rug. He just gets so stimulated inside- when we play 'find the piece of liver' inside, when I open the lounge door to let him through to sniff , he has literally been leaning on it and almost pushes me out the way in his rush to get at it.

The flip side of this, is that when he's perfromaing the behaviours, he's actuallly quite slow -for example his spins are like a turning tanker sometimes, (he jsut hasn't got the agility / flexibility of some)

 

[snowbunny]

I remmebr you mentioning this agaes ago - I think he could benefit from this - did you post a link before?

Oooh, I'm not sure. It's in the latest Leslie McDevitt book; I don't know if there are any video resources. I will try to take some video if I have time (but that's rather short at the moment).
Essentially, though, get a piece of food, hold in front of nose, as soon as you see the nostrils flare, feed (no marker word or noise). Repeat. Eventually, you'll see the dog realise that they are getting paid for breathing (it's hysterical) and they start flaring their nostrils really dramatically

Then you can start adding a cue. Mine is just a finger on my nose. I do that, hold the kibble, wait for the flare, feed. Then finger (no kibble), wait for flare, feed... etc etc.

I put my lot in a sit for it, as that makes it clear that I'm not after any other behaviour.

 

[Natalie]

Oooh, I'm not sure. It's in the latest Leslie McDevitt book; I don't know if there are any video resources. I will try to take some video if I have time (but that's rather short at the moment).
Essentially, though, get a piece of food, hold in front of nose, as soon as you see the nostrils flare, feed (no marker word or noise). Repeat. Eventually, you'll see the dog realise that they are getting paid for breathing (it's hysterical) and they start flaring their nostrils really dramatically

Then you can start adding a cue. Mine is just a finger on my nose. I do that, hold the kibble, wait for the flare, feed. Then finger (no kibble), wait for flare, feed... etc etc.

I put my lot in a sit for it, as that makes it clear that I'm not after any other behaviour.

Hmm, okay, I can do that. I'll try tonight.