Hi all

I'm racking my brains (doesn't take long! ;-) ) trying to think of some training games I can do with our KCGC Gold class next week.

Just trying to inject something a bit different to stop things going stale and inject a bit of fun into the class.  Some of them have passed their Gold and others are almost ready so they're all pretty good.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

Anyone?

At ours we form teams,dogs on loose leads,and each person has to carry a tennis ball on a spoon,in the same hand the lead is in,from a bin up the hall,so,run out, scoop up ball,back as quick as poss,hand spoon to next person,carry on,first team to have an empty ball bin wins.
Another one is a lane of chairs,distacting articles on floor,dogs take turns in doing a recall through them,upping the temptation with better articles if too many get through!
Recall,handler dropping the dog as many times as poss before dog presents
Is that the kind of thing?

We used to have sausage races when I trained with BAGSD with dogs retrieving a sausage to the hand... yuck to drool!!! but many could do it without eating them!
We also used to blindfold owners and get them to find thier own dogs by feel alone!
Aileen

We have done a similar sausage game to Merlot's only the sausage was placed on a plate in the middle of the hall.  Handler goes to far end of hall and recalls dog who is released from other end of the hall.  How many ignore the sausage and recall directly to owner (not many, in our experience! :-D )

Just replying to ShaynLola as she was the last poster.

They sound great.  I was thinking about something along the lines of the sausage game and the tennis ball and spoon sounds good fun.

Am determined we're going to have a good laugh next week :-)

More ideas welcome if anyone has them.

Thanks to you all for posting so far :-D

game we used to play when my girl was in a show team ... people would hold 5 or 6 med size hoops covered in tissue paper and the dogs would jump through them bursting through the paper ... a good one for control handling.. you start of teaching jumping through hoops without the paper first.... the dogs loved it.

1. Two teams. Each team has line of 4 cones (like football drill) which they have to weave through (either just the dog or dog and handler together), then 5 second sit/down at the end before the next team member can go. Can extend it by having dogs do a twist then into the sit/down. Hardest option would be a twist followed by a walk back.

2. Emergency stop competition. Dogs to be recalled (or return to handler having run after a sweet to get them away from the handler) then stopped as close to a designated point as possible (can be a line on the floor, two cones or chairs as the marker points etc). You can either judge it on how close the dog gets to that point OR how many footsteps he/she takes to stop after being commanded.

3. Quick sit competition. Teams to walk round the hall and last dog to sit after instructor gives the command is out. Throw in the odd 'Down' to make it fun lol.

4. Bit of a norty one now. Dogs to be recalled to handler who is holding a sausage at the dog's head level. Handler to have eyes shut as the dog presents. If the dog nibbles/eats the sausage, they are out.   

Wow Marisa, you must have more fun than we do at training!!

Sounds fab!

Thanks Paula. Must have taken around 800 classes over the last 13 years, so always looking for ways to keep it fresh lol. Not always easy, especially when you have handlers who have been with you from the start of club.

1. Set up some low height basic jumps (can use broom handles resting on low chairs). Can then teach a variety of things eg dog to wait until called over jump (handler on same side of jump as the dog). Dog to wait until called over jump (handler on other side of jump). Dog to run ahead of handler and go over jump before handler reaches it. Dog to do the latter then be called left or right handed away from the jump.
The jumps can also be positioned on the same line (from left to right) and the dog can be sent over the 1st jump, then called back over the 2nd jump, then sent over the third jump etc.

2. I also teach basic tricks - say prayers, jump up on command, twist (both directions), speak, play bow etc.

3. Heelwork with the dog positioned on the handler's right hand side for a change (or left, if the dog is normally on their right). Takes people out of their comfort zone but can be useful to stop dogs being unbalanced/too body oriented in one particular direction.

4. An 'A' Recall. Dog to wait (or held) in the sit/down whilst the handler walks away. Handler then calls the dog to their side. Once the dog has reached the handler, they do a small bit of heelwork together. Once they have done this a couple of times, we then go through reinforcing the wait by leaving the dog, NOT calling him, returning and rewarding the dog in the wait position. (Otherwise you can get anticipation problems if you call the dog every single time you say 'Wait'.)

5. Left and right circles in slow pace round a chair. Then show them how to use the chair to square off the turn. 

6. Figures of 8 round two chairs or cones (chairs are better if the dogs are not used to moving their back ends when making left movements).

Thanks again Marisa, will be writing these all out and making a lesson plan for Sunday.

I'll let you know how it all goes!!

Variation of musical chairs, but with large sheets of paper. Dogs & handlers walk around the perimeter to music & when it stops dogs have to sit on one of the sheets, always one less than the number of dogs so one drops out every time.

We had such a good day today!!

The games went down really really well!!  We had such a laugh :-)

The dogs got loads of sausages and a raw egg and the handlers and I screamed laughing!!!

The only problem is now they want us to do it once a month! :-o  So feel free (please please!) to keep the ideas coming!!

We did a recall past the sausage, a recall to the sausage (handlers eyes shut, no nibbling!!), hold the raw egg, weave race with a 5 second down relay, find the handlers shoe (have to admit, the bits of sausage in the relevant shoe, may have helped in this one!!)

Thanks everyone who gave me their ideas - we all appreciated it today!!