30 things to do around the house with a bored dog

1. Hide & go Treat: supper is served on little cottage cheese container lids scattered all over the house.

2. Kong Freeze: supper is served frozen (with water) into a kong. A little cheese or bread usually plugs the small hole pretty good. Pop the kong into a baggie to minimize leaking inside your freezer.

3. The Stairs: fetch on the stairs (if carpeted). Teach your dog to run up & down the stairs on command. Teach your dog to stop on command with 2 feet on one stair & 2 feet on the other - harder for the dog than you would guess! You'll find their momentum wants to keep their butt going when the front end stops & it takes some real effort on their part to keep that from happening. (And if you ever get into agility, you'll have awesome contacts!)

4. Tunnel: Go to Toys R Us and invest in a little kid's crawl-through tunnel. If your dog is too big for that, www.affordableagility.com has a lightweight fabric one for $80 that my 27" at the shoulder boy fits through just fine. Given a little confidence that you'll be on the other side with lots of praise, most dogs love the tunnel. For the bigger guys, shimmying through one of those takes some real effort!

5. Step Pretty: got a ladder? Lay it down on the floor and have your dog carefully step through each spoke. If they step on the rung, or their back end swings out of the sequence, stop, then proceed forward only when they're stepping like a Army cadet. Start very slow so they can get their feet right, then speed up 'til they're able to trot easily through it. (Another agility exercise to build feet awareness!)

6. Think Outside the Box: invest $3 in a clicker and 'supercharge' it by spending a week by randomly clicking & immediately giving a treat. When the dog turns excitedly to you for a treat whenever (s)he hears a click, you've got it. Now take a carboard box or a laundry basket and put it on the floor. When (s)he sniffs it, click/treat. She'll wonder what in the world she got that for, and eventually try sniffing the laundry basket again. When she's got the idea going near the basket is they key, she'll gain confidence. Then you wait for her to interact with the basket in a different way & you click that. Sounds rather odd, but is actually hilarious. One of my dogs insists on putting all his toys inside the laundry basket. Another one is certain he should either jump inside or over it, and the 3rd one will only paw at it. Very fun for the dog to get the wheels turning trying to figure out what you want - and there are no wrong answers. You let them define what they should do with it & just reinforce tendencies they already have.

7. Towel Off: if they're toy or treat crazy, you can wrap one up in an old towel and allow them to tear & claw their way to it. Always a good time.

8. Where's Puppy?: throw blanket over dog. Lots of laughter & encouragement & petting for the dog to find it's way out of the blanket. Please note you should start my barely covering the dog's head - don't want to freak fido out!

9. Touch It: teach your dog that by touchig it's nose to a small, portable object that he'll get a treat. I always seem to have enough cottage cheese container lids on hand for these kind of things. Now you can play 'keep away' with it - have them run circles around you, trying to touch the lid (keep success rate high for the dog at first). You can have them jump to touch it if you like (be sure you're on a carpeted surface so they don't slip). You can put the lid across the room & have them race to touch it & then come back for the treat. On one of the stairs. Under the edge of the bed. On the window sill. Taped to the back of the couch (if you've got a smaller dog - some will eventually run, jump, and bank off the back of the couch like an Olympic swimmer - the foundation for a flyball dog's turn on the box). Be creative - the possibilities are endless!

10. Crawl Recall: teach your dog to crawl by putting them in a down & using a treat to lure them forward. Uses all kinds of different muscles.

11. Leg Weave: use treats to teach your dog to weave a figure 8 pattern through your legs. Builds body awareness & is surprisingly tiring for the dog!

12. make 2 (or more jumps) for the pup on a carpeted surface by sliding the broom & mop through the rungs on your kitchen chairs. Ideally you'll want the jumps about as high as your dog's elbow. Now place the jumps about 5' apart. Your goal here is to get your dog really concentrating on the task of jumping, and pushing off with his hindquarters. Have him go slow - for anyone who's ever done aerobics, you know how much work it is to do a movement with precision & control! (This exercise is designed to build rear muscles & develop jumping technique.)

13. doggy massages for everyone - I got a 'how to' book & the T-Touch videotape off of half.com for discounted prices. www.dogwise.com has them new. (Think if I got the hubby a book on human massage & then acted really hyper, this would work for me?????) I even turned down the lights and put soothing music on . . . man am I weird, but I think I found it more relaxing than they did! LOL

14. doesn't work for the GSP's (they're too big), but to train the little JRT in on the flyball box, I took a medium-sized cardboard box & glued a piece of velcro to it. Then I stuck the ball on the velcro & teached him to take it off. So - send to get the ball, whoop it up on the return, play tug, then send to get the ball again. He starts crying with excitement when he sees the ball on the box. Goofy pup.

15. use treats & a leash to teach them to run around a small object (I use a paint can or a bucket), then come back to you for a ball toss or to play tug. (This is another exercise to build up the dog's muscles for the flyball turn on the box.)

16. I'm trying to teach the GSP's to use their nose and push a football to me rather than pick it up and retrieve it. I'm having limited success so far, but it's definitely worth a giggle or two. I've been trying to shape the behavior by clicking when they touch it with their nose, but not of they pick it up & bring it to me . . . definitely needs more work, but in the meantime they're pushing this thing that rolls erratically all of the basement & their tails are wagging nonstop!

17. Bunny Hop: Dog sitting in heel position. Take one step, stop, ask for sit & treat. One step, stop, sit & treat. Soon they sit as soon as you stop & look at you, excited to get their treat. Eventually your dog will 'bunny hop' with sits at your side as you step-pause all the way across the room. Not that you'd ever want them to - but what the heck! Make them earn their meal for the evening this way! You worked hard to bring home the bacon - no reason Mr. Spot gets a free ride! Everbody gets a certain level of satisfaction from earning rewards rather than getting everything for free . . .

18. "Catch me" heeling. Dog off leash and hungry. You have treats (I don't show them to the boys - they can smell them). Ignore dog. Start walking around by yourself. As soon as curious dog wanders into approximate heel position, pop a treat into their mouth & then zoom away in the opposite direction (you could toss a toy too if that would work better or you're counting calories). Say nothing. Repeat - every time dog gets into heel position, treat & then a quick about-turn on your heel or zig-zag in the opposite direction. My dogs get this quizzical look on their face - 'what in the?', but are soon hussling to try really hard to stay in heel position - then you switch to reward this behavior. Explode into praise & treats the minute the dog hustles to turn or zig-zag with you - you want them to really TRY to stay in heel position.

19. Teach dog to jump through hoola hoop. Later on add streamers for extra flare & realize you'll have to re-teach it.

20. Use clicker to teach dog to stick their head under the bed, or stare at the wall. Completely and totally useless, but makes for good party tricks.

21. Retrieving odd objects. Extracting one kleenex from box & bringing it to you. Picking up a quarter from the floor (must be tough to do with your teeth!)

22. Lay on the floor and lure dog to jump over outstretched arm. (Arm is on the floor right now.) Slowly raise arm inch-by-inch until you're kneeling and pup is jumping over it. Right now I'm working on getting mine to run in circles around me, jumping my outstretched arms like spokes on a wheel. So many plans, so little time . . .

23. Backwards heel: Using a treat to lure, teach dog to take a step backwards while in heel position. Then 2 steps, then 3 until you're both walking backwards across the room. Make certain you don't run him into anything!

24. Use a treat to lure dog into spinning in tight clockwise circles. Then teach them to spin in the opposite direction. (BTW, both of the previous 2 exercises teach body awareness for doggy sports.)

25. Using the clicker, teach the dog a unique posture for a down. For example, Saxon has a down with his head on his paws - just put him in a down, wait for him to put his head on his paws, then click/treat for that. Those little buggers are smart - you wonder how much of their life is spent trying to figure out how their actions can influence you to do something??

26. my Christmas Finale will be having the boys ring a series of bells. I've got 3 of different sizes/tones hanging loose from a broom propped between 2 chairs in my basement. I want each dog to run up & touch a bell to make it ring upon command . . . kinda like you see the seals do at the circus, right? I have visions of the 3 dogs working in unison to play the first phrase of "Jingle Bells" by Christmas. Or maybe it will take 'til next Christmas.  No hurry - we're having a blast with it in the meantime - you gotta smile when the hounds blast down into their basement training area (door closed the rest of the time) and run over to start ringing bells with a huge doggy grin on their face.

27. boring toy supercharge. Ever spend big $ on a toy, only to find your dog has little interest in it? Dog have no interest in tennis balls or latex toys? You can change that . . . put it on top of the refrigerator, then take it out once or twice per day to play with it yourself. Ignore dog. In fact, keep it from dog. Exclaim to the world in general (not looking at dog) how wonderful it is, toss it in the air, whoop it up big time. Run all over the house with it, dog jumping in excitement, and you completely ignoring him. Take it over to the hubby and exclaim on the virtues of this toy (he'll probably just roll his eyes at you, but even better if you can get him to play the game.) Then put it away. Doing this every day & at the end of the week, start playing, then let him (by accident) get it - be sure to play interactively with him! After a long minute, take it back & put it away. Repeat until it's the best toy ever.

28. teach your dog to "get a toy" (any toy). Sit on the couch with a baggie of treats & ask for one. Watch them pace, whine, search all over - then bring you one. Then another & another 'til all the toys are on your lap. If you've got a dog like Hogan, he'll act for all the world like he can't see the last toy. He'll cry, he'll stumble over it, he'll swoop down as if to pick it up, look you in the eye, grin, and keep running around. Acting for all the world as if he's just trying so hard LOL

29. couch somersault. Take collar off dog so it doesn't catch on the couch. Sit on couch. Encourage dog to stand next to you with head down & butt up. Then reach behind their front legs with a treat. Don't let them turn to get the treat - make them tuck their head between their front paws to get it. When they're good & tucked, let them nibble treat while gently and slowly using your arm to somersault their butt over. Eventually they get it & start offering it on their own. Beware though - the dogs will do this to guests in hopes of getting a treat! smile

30. double-toy retrieve (usually ends up with the dog running faster than just a single-toy retrieve). 2 exact same toys. Toss one across room. As soon as he returns near you with it, toss another. Keep tossing the 2nd toy as soon as he retrieves the first - don't give him even a second to catch his breath.