I was going to start a thread about Dog Games, but I figured there must already be one somewhere.
I love playing
Hide And Seek with my dogs. It tests their hearing and smell and allows them to practice Stay and Come. I tell them to STAY and then I go and hide somewhere in the house, and yell for them to COME. Then I just watch in amusement as they look all over for me. The first one to find me gets all the treats in my hands. This is definetely my dogs' favorite game. Mikey has a habit of
trying to cheat and peek around the corner to see where I'm hiding.
We also play
Hide The Treats, which tests their memory and smell. I tell them to STAY and then I place treats throughout the room with them sitting there watching me hide them. After I've hid about a dozen treats I'll give them the release signal OKAY and tell them to GET EM.
A variation of this is the
Cup Game where I'll have them SIT and watch as I hide one treat under a cup in a row of cups. Sometimes I'll then mix the cups around so they have to try and remember what cup the treat is under. I tell them the release signal OKAY and whoever remebers what cup it's under ends up getting the treat. If they tip over the wrong cup, then I end the game and take back the treat.
My black lab is a big fan of
Catch Me If You Can. In this game I stand in the middle of the room, and my dog runs to the opposite wall. I take a play stance and tell him to RUN, and then he races towards me as fast as he can, gets really close, and then runs to the other side of the room. The object of the game is just for me to catch him before he runs past me. No treats are involved, it's just a way for him to get a lot of excercise.
A variation of this is the
Blanket Game. Works the same way but instead of catching the dog, I toss a blanket over him if he's too slow. They seem to have more fun with the blanket.
My black lab also seems to be very amused with any game of
Peek-A-Boo. Cover your face, or hide behind a curtain, and pop out and he goes crazy.
My dalmation/lab loves to play
Come And Go, which is really just a way to practice the COME and GO commands but it's become like a game to him. I tell him to COME to me and as soon as he reaches me I point in a random direction and tell him to GO. When he goes in that direction I throw him a treat and tell him to COME back and GO in a different direction. He's gotten very good at Going in whatever direction I tell him.
He also loves to play
Soccer. That just involves me kicking around a soccer ball and him trying to steal it from me, and then him kicking it around (it's too big for him to pick up) and me trying to steal it away from him. Eventually I'd like to teach him to kick it through some goal posts, but I haven't got that set up yet.
Then of course there are all the basic
Fetch games and variations. I often turn training time into game time. I'm teaching my dalmation/lab to learn his colors now, so instead of regular fetch I'll throw several tennis balls and tell him to bring me back a certain color. If he brings the wrong one I won't play, I just say "RED". When he brings the right color ball back he gets a treat and I act excited. He's also learned the names of his toys (Froggie, Ball, Cow Ball, Teddie, Soccer Ball) so we can play games that require him to fetch specific toys.