Fave games / exercises in OB class?

[Guardyan]

Hi all,

I'm teaching a basic OB class that starts next month. The club asked me to teach at 8 p.m. so I really need to keep things interesting. It's tough to get people out that late during the winter! So, I was curious if anyone had any favorite games or exercises that they would be willing to share. I'd love to spice up the curriculum and hopefully have a high level of participation/enthusiasm.

For example, I was thinking of having a 'Milk Bone Challenge', where people, er, their dogs can earn a biscuit for successfully training the prior week's lesson (e.g. biscuit for a 15 sec. stay). Or adding fun things to try at home like the restrained recall or chase recall. I'd love to hear other fun ideas and things you enjoyed in your previous classes.

Thanks in advance!

[Cassidy's Mom]

In one of Keefer's classes we had a recall relay competition where they split the class in half and put ring gates down the center of the room. Each person would hand off the leash to a trainer or assistant, run to the other end of the building and call their dog. When the dog got to them it had to sit, you'd grab the collar and walk them back to the start and the next dog would go. The group that finished all their dogs first was the winner. If there are an odd number of dogs in the class, one dog runs first and last for the smaller group. That dog was Keefer because he's BLAZING fast! (We won. )

You can also do musical chairs. Set up a circle of chairs facing out, one less than the number of dogs. Everyone walks around the chairs until told to stop and then you have to put your dog in a sit, drop the leash, and sit in a chair. Last person gets eliminated and you go again until there's only one team left, and they win. If your dog breaks the sit, you're also eliminated. (We tied. )

[Guardyan]

Awesome ideas! Thank you so much!!!

(Way to go Keefer!)

[Chicagocanine]

I've played a lot of dog games at events and classes. Some of them may be too advanced for a beginners class though and many others are just silly games not really obedience-related like dress-up relay races and ball-catching contests.

Tic-tac-toe: Set up a "board" using hula hoops or tape. Create two teams, one will be the "sit" team the other the "down" team. When it is their turn the owner must get their dog sitting or laying down (depending on which team they're on) in the hoop/square. The owner can stand next to the dog (in the version we played you could stand next to the dog or leave them in a stay and walk away, depending on your dog's level of obedience.)
Whoever gets 3 dogs in their team staying in a row wins (like regular tic-tac-toe). If a dog breaks the stay and can not be re-placed within a certain time period, they have to leave the hoop/square. If the dog walks out of the hoop/square completely, they lose their spot.

Copy CAT: Make two teams. One member of one team will demostrate a behavior with their dog. The other team has to choose a dog on their team to "copy" the same behavior. If the second team can't copy the same behavior then they get a "C". The team who fails to copy the behavior 3 times gets C-A-T and the other team wins. The two teams take turns with one dog doing a behavior the other team has to copy until one of the teams has C-A-T (like the game HORSE in basketball.)
For example the first team might have a dog do a "sit" on a hand signal. The other team then has to have one of their dogs do a "sit" on a hand signal as well to avoid getting a "C".


At one training class I went to we played the board game "My Dog Can Do That" for the final class. We didn't use the board itself though, we just used the cards and went by the points on the cards for a score. They divided us into two teams and the team with the most points won.


I've also done stay competitions but those are usually for more advanced dogs... The dogs are all put in a down-stay. The owners walk across the room and the dog who is staying the longest wins. We did this at a party for our animal-assisted therapy organization. After a few minutes they added distractions like tossing biscuits on the ground, throwing balls around, crouching down in front of dogs and talking to them, etc... At the end only my Golden Ginger and another Golden remained and neither of them would get up so they ended up declaring it a tie!

[Guardyan]

Those are great! We play "Tic-tac-dog" at our club picnic and it's really fun. I hadn't heard of copy cat before, but that sounds like a great game. Thank you so much for the ideas!

[IliamnasQuest]

We do a lot of game style things at my club. We do recalls in a circle so that dogs are coming across in front of everyone instead of just in a line. We do drop on recall on a dollar bill (if the dog can cover the dollar, they win it!). We do "stop and go" where people wander around with their dogs and then at the word "stop" they have to stop and drop their dogs. The floor is first scattered with pennies, nickles, etc. and any money UNDER their dog they get to pick up - whoever has the most money at the end wins. We play "follow the cards" (something I was doing before rally became popular) where each card tells them something to do, and the cards are usually put up on the wall so you can just follow them around in a circle. The cards are based on whatever level the class is at - basic obedience class may have a simple "sit", "down", turn a circle to the left/right, walk to a cone and back with a loose leash, circle a cone, do a stand, etc.

We play relays where the dogs have to hold a stay. There are teams and on the word "go" the first person on each team quickly walks their dog down across a set line, puts the dog on a stay and walks back. When they return, the second person goes, etc. etc. If a dog breaks, everyone on that team has to freeze while the person whose dog broke goes back to it to set it back into place. First team to get all their dogs staying with all of their people at the other side wins. For more advanced teams, we do this at a run. For less advanced teams, we do it all on leash and the people just go to the end of the leash after they say "stay".

We do simplified obstacle courses that require a dog/handler to work on a loose leash. They may have to serpentine some cones, go around an object, send their dog through a short tunnel and catch it on the other side, go over a short jump, etc. If we're really testing the dogs, the leashes are replaced with a 5' length of surveyor's tape. The surveyor's tape stretches quite a ways before it breaks, but the goal is to finish the report and have the tape still measure five feet! *L*

I do games where someone has to carry a spoon and a tennis ball in the spoon while they walk their dogs - the spoon must be in the SAME HAND as the leash! Whoever is the last to keep the ball in the spoon wins.

There are more games for advanced groups, but anything that encourages people to interact and have fun is just great. Most of the games I play use as few props as possible. Simple ones like the puppy push-up race (how many times can your dog sit and then down in 30 seconds?) are fun for beginning dogs, too.

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

[Guardyan]

Wow, it sounds like you have a lot of fun activities at your club! I'm definitely going to think about integrating some of these into my class. Thank you so much for sharing!

[mjbgsd]

Quote:You can also do musical chairs. Set up a circle of chairs facing out, one less than the number of dogs. Everyone walks around the chairs until told to stop and then you have to put your dog in a sit, drop the leash, and sit in a chair. Last person gets eliminated and you go again until there's only one team left, and they win. If your dog breaks the sit, you're also eliminated.

When I was in 4H dogs, we did that at Fair time on Saturdays when it was night time and things were going slow. We called it game night for us who were stuck at the fair. (Certain groups had to stay on certain days depending on your age group and what is happening that day) My dogs' and a friends dogs' always won.


Another thing we would do is send our dog in a crate someone had set up on the other side of the room. We would wait on one side of the ring behind a line and when the person said go, holding the stop watch, we would run with our dogs and shout "kennel", "crate", "box" whatever we used to get the dog to go in the crate. The fasted time got some dog cookies. I was the always the winner with Cody, he got in the crate in under 4 seconds.

We also played with hoolah hoops with the advanced dogs. There would be many hoops scattered around the area and you had to walk with your dog offleash in a heel around in a circle, when the music stopped you and your dog had to get INSIDE the hoop and make your dog stay in the hoop without touching them, it was all right if your dog jumped on you though if you had a big dog. Me and another person always tied because Cody would jump on me so his back feet were in the hoop and the other person had a small dog.

We would also play red light green light but doggy style. lol. We either had to do a down or sit, most the time it was a sit, and when the person shouted green light you and your dog would speed walk, can't run in this game, and when the person said red light you would have your dog either down or sit. The slowest dogs would be taken out. Me and another friend would always get their the fastest, we have fast and very well trained dogs compared to a lot of the Novice kids.

[Guardyan]

Way to go Missy and Cody! I'm glad you guys are still out showing the world just how exceptional GSDs can be!

Thanks so much for sharing some of your favorite games! I think this class is going to be a lot of fun!

[Chicagocanine]

Hey I just thought of another source for some things you can try... You can probably alter these exercises so they would be a little easier for a basic obedience class:

http://www.dogscouts1.com/Dog_Activ-_IMPROV.html