집에서 반려견과 운동하는 20가지 쉬운 방법 #32

engaged with a game. And if your dog doesn't like toys, take an old sock and put a, you know, a piece of food in that, or a bunch of food in that sock, tie a knot in it and let the dog tug with the food sock. Right? Game of tug. Super easy. Gets the dog engaged. Game number three is find the cookie. So, now we have a dog that will chase for cookies. All that you're going to do is take a face cloth and put the cookie half hidden under that face cloth and let your dog even see you hide it and release them and tell them to find it. And they'll easily find that. Graduate to putting that behind a couch cushion. So, they have to move the couch cushion. Now game is on. You can say find it and start hiding it in more complex places. So, the dog has to use their nose and rampage your apartment to find whatever you have hidden for them. This works as well if your dog has a favorite toy, like if they love tennis balls, then you can hide the tennis ball. Game number four is a graduation of the find it game. And you're going to take that cookie and you're going to put it inside of a toy, like a rubber Kong. So, now you're hiding the Kong with the cookie inside. They're still going to smell for the cookie. And then when they find it, they have the joy and excitement of trying to get that cookie out of the Kong. That's the find it plus game. That's game number four. Game number five is another graduation on that is you're just going to hide the Kong alone. And when the dog finds it, you're going to throw cookies on the floor, search, have a big celebration. Yay, you found it. And then throw cookies on the floor and you're not hiding cookies. You're actually, they're scenting for the Kong itself. Game number six is a game I've played with all my puppies my entire life. It's called the Smokeya game. And it can start by just holding the dog back, pushing them, and then running. And they chase you when you catch them that you give them their favorite toy or cookie. And that graduates to running. If you have an island in the middle of your kitchen, running around the kitchen. Now be careful. You don't want to slip and fall and you don't want your dog to slip and fall. So, if your floor surface is freshly polished, make sure that you're not going crazy in that environment. So, you're just getting the dog to chase you when they catch you. You give them a cookie. That is the Smokeya game. Game number seven is the, I call it, proprio path. Now this is great for the dog's focus, concentration, and actually is really, really good for their body as they're learning to

balance. And what I do is I make, it can start off with a straight path of things you find around your house that the dog has to walk across. So, it might be, I used to use a phone book, but I don't think there's any such things as phone books. I would duct tape that phone book. So, maybe get a couple old novels out and pile them up, make them wide enough for the dog to step up on. And then you could put in a couch cushion in there. And then just a regular step stool. You could get like a, a piece of four by four that the dog has to walk across and balance on. Just make a path that the dog has to walk across. And you're going to give them cookies every step of the way along that path. You could get a plank and put it between two step stools. So, now they have to balance between that plank. Proprio path engages the dog. They have to focus. It's physically tough for them. They learn balance. It's awesome. Once they get really good, you can ask them to turn around and go back the other way in the midst of that path. Maybe even make a right angle or two in your path. That's game number seven, proprio path. Game number eight, the magic cup game. Now this game looks impressive to your friends, but it's super easy. Take your dog's favorite cookie and hide it under a plastic cup. Just move the cup around and wait till the dog tries to get it out. Now, if you've played the search game, they're going to know to find it. As soon as they make a motion towards it, open the cup and let them have it. You're going to keep doing this till they're going to bump it with their nose or their paw. And that will be your indication. Open the cup as soon as you get that. Now you're going to move it up, mix it around with two cups and the dog will use their nose, bump it, open it up, boom. And then you get the three magic cup game and it looks super cool, but it's really, really easy for any dog to learn. Game number nine is the yoga rollout. Yeah, it's good for both of you. Not what you think. Take a yoga mat and put cookies in it and start rolling it up. So, you get the whole yoga mat rolled up and it's kind of bumpy. And then put a cookie right at the base of the yoga mat so that the dog eats it. And as they're eating it, their head may bump the yoga mat and lo and behold, there's another cookie under there. So, then they bump it again and there's another cookie under there and they keep bumping it until they've rolled out the entire yoga mat. Now, if you haven't played any of those other games, here's what I would suggest. You only roll up that yoga mat part way, just enough

so it holds its form and only have the dog roll it out to the end. So, it's super easy for them to get the end and then graduate to a full yoga rollout. Game number 10 is walking downstairs. Now this, oh, my dog walks up and downstairs all the time. This sounds super easy. Put your dog on a harness and just start at the bottom step. Have them walk down one step and then walk down two steps. Walking down steps takes a lot of strength and it's difficult for dogs. They just want to run. So, just start with one or two steps until you graduate to a full flight. Now, those of you who say, oh, Susan, I live in an apartment. I don't have steps. Take your couch cushions and make a step. Super easy. Game number 11 is the muffin tin game. Take a muffin tin and fill it with cookies and just let your dog eat the cookies out of the muffin tin. Now what you're going to do is you're going to start with one little muffin tin hole, put a cookie in it and put a pair of socks over it. So, the dog has to move the socks out of the way to get the cookie out. Then fill it with two holes and two socks. And then you could fill your whole thing with socks, but only put cookies in say half of the muffin tin. You can graduate to filling it instead of socks, using something harder to move out like tennis balls. Fun game keeps your dog busy. That is the muffin tin game. Game number 12 is teaching the pop up stand. That's where you put your hand over your dog's head. They pop up to touch your hand and they land in a stand. And now I'm going to leave you a link. I give you full instructions on how to teach this to yourself. Just follow the link in the show notes. Number 13 is just doggy pushups. You ask your dog to sit and then you give them a cookie. Ask them to down, give them a cookie. And if you've done the game before, the stand game, ask them to down, give them a cookie. Now do a combination of it. Maybe they have to do two things. Down, sit, and then they get their cookie. Maybe three things. Sit down, stand. Maybe four. And graduate to, they might have to do like 10 things before they get that one cookie. That's doggy pushups. Game number 14, my all-time favorite game, crate games. Now this one is little involved. So, I'm going to give you a link to our crate games online that you can take your dog to. It's a great activity for you and your dog. And it gives you all kinds of behaviors at the end of the day. Game number 15 is hot zone. A dog bed. Take a raised dog bed, a regular dog bed. It's ideally, you don't want to do this with a dog bed without sides.

It works best with sides. Give your dog a cookie for being in there and say that search and throw the cookie on the floor. You want your dog to want to stay in that hot zone. When they can stay, you're going to move further and further away. And so that they are holding that position in the hot zone before you say the word search. When they get good at it, add a double hot zone. So, they go from one bed all the way to the other. You might add three of them. So, that's the game. They start racing between those three beds. Hot zone. That's game number 15. Game number 16 is fetch. Simple game of fetch. Throw a toy, your dog picks it up and brings it back. Now, I would start by not having a long distance, especially if you have slippery floors. Just have the dog go a short distance. So, drop the toy in front and tell the dog to get it. They turn around, grab it, and then you guys can have a great game of tug. You can add the game where the dog goes out to get the toy and ask them to sit before they get to it. And then they get it. So, you're adding a surprise sit in the middle of your game of fetch. Game number 17, hide and seek. Super easy. Either have somebody hold your dog, put your dog in the hot zone, or start from crate games. And you just go and hide somewhere in your house, somewhere easy at first, and then call the dog or release them. When they find you, have a big game of tug or something the dog loves. Stand up and run so that you play the smokey game before you give them the cookie. You can start by just giving them cookies when they find you, but add it into activity where you're moving if you can. Because I remembered some of you have had your hip replacement, so you can't do the running with this one. Okay. So, that was the hide and seek. Game number 18. This one is more technical. Getting your dog to weave between your legs. All right. So, stand with your dog, ask your dog to sit and then just step over your dog so you're straddling them. Give them the release word and throw the cookie out in front saying search. So, now the dog is coming from between your legs and throw the cookie towards your left foot. Do that a few times and then gradually don't give them the cookie, but have them come in behind you and drop the cookie behind your left leg. Very quickly, you can graduate this to dropping the cookie between your legs as they've made that one loop. And you're just going to carry on and doing it to the right side. Pretty soon you'll have them weaving between your legs. Game number 19. I put it near the end. Isn't really a difficult game,

but it requires a piece of equipment. So, that's why I put it near the end. It's the ladder game. An extension ladder, a long extension ladder, or if you have one of those emergency fire exit ladders, those cloth ladders that you hang out your window, that will do. Just roll it out. What you want to do is you're going to get your dog to walk through the ladder. Put them on leash, drop a cookie in between each rung. And at first the dog just eats their way across the ladder. We only ever want the dog walking. Turn them around. And once they get comfortable with eating the cookies between the ladder rungs, you're only going to drop a cookie every second or third rung. So, you're getting them walking between the ladder. This is really, it's great proprioception where they have to be very conscientiously moving their paws through the ladder rungs. It's great exercise for your dog and mental stimulation as well. Okay. And our final game number 20. Again, one of my all-time favorite games. We're going to teach your dog to back up. And it sounds very complicated, but it's really cool. What you do is you take your hot zone. So, this is one that you can start from the hot zone, or you can just take a couch cushion off the floor, get your dog to get on the cushion, give them some cookies, release, search, go find that cookie. Do that a few times so that they recognize there's value for getting on that couch cushion or hot zone. Now what you're going to do is you're just going to move forward and have them step off the cushion to you. And you're going to give them a cookie in your hand. And then you're going to wait. Now, if you've given them lots of cookies for being in that zone, they may either turn around and get on it, but they may just, since they already have, they're super close, they may even have their back feet on it. They may just push back to get on that. When they do that, you're going to bowl the cookie along the floor towards the hot zone. Eventually move yourself out so that they're backing up to get in that hot zone. The key to this game, it combines what I talked about in our last episode, your placement of reinforcement. The key to the game is your placement of reinforcement. You want to roll the cookie between your dog's front feet so that their head is down and they're continuing the backup motion because the cookie is rolling between their feet as they back up and they find it. Ta-da, here's my cookie. It's a great game, but I put it at the end because it is slightly more technical. Well, there you have it. 20 easy ways that you can

exercise your dog regardless of where you are. Now, the next time you hear somebody say, Oh, I'd love to exercise my dog, but I can't because you jump in and you tell them, you've got to go check out Susan Garrett's Shaped by Dog. Episode number 32, 32, 32, because she's got you covered. 20 easy games that anyone can play regardless of your situation or where you're living. And on top of it being fun for your dog and on top of it stimulating their brain and exercising their body, it's bonding guys. And that's what helps build our relationship, make our relationship to our dogs even closer. That's it for me on Shaped by Dog. We'll see you next time on Shaped by Dog. Thank you.