HELP! I have been attending Midlands Counties German Shepherd Dog (Derby) for years. We have a fun day, when we have a few fun competitions with our dogs. We train obedience and agility, but the fun day is just that. We are stuck for ideas, does anyone have any suggestions that we could try for a change?

We used to have a retrieve the sausage race at BAGSDA years ago. I am happy to say my old GSD Tzar could win it hands (or paws) down. He would run out to retrieve it and never ever ate it but brought it right back to me. His reward was of course being told he could have it !!
If you think retrieving one is too hard we used to have the youngsters do a recall between 2 rows of sausages sat on chairs !
Egg and markies is fun, lots of handler participation, just a few large spoons and lots of markies then just as the name says a race without dropping it. Dog in one hand on lead, spoon in the other. If you get too many clever handlers then we usually have a run off with leads and spoons in the same hand !!!
Fastest recall is good too. Make it a good distance.
Biscuit catching is fun. One person throws the bics to the dogs who should be sat with their handlers, drop one and your out. Get further away to throw as the numbers dwindle.
Aileen

Thanks Aileen. If I have to go through 'Simon says' one more year....................it must take 30 minutes! Normally do the egg and spoon, never thought of using dog biscuits. The catching game sounds like fun and the sausages on chairs sounds hilarious! The fastest recall sounds good, but some of the GSD'S get a bit too excited, to do it all together, they would have to be timed individually.

>retrieve the sausage race

Variation on a theme: You could use an egg (raw or hard boiled). What about a gundog scurry type thing over jumps. As you say, one dog at a time over obstacles and fastest dog wins.

We used to have a retrieve the sausage race at BAGSDA years ago. I am happy to say my old GSD Tzar could win it hands (or paws) down.

My Penny could as she HATES sausages. :)

For a slightly easier challenge with less instant waste, large bone shaped dog biscuits.

The sausage race we did at the training club Christmas party involved the dogs doing a stay while the owners raced to retrieve the bits of sausage and give them to the dog. :-)

How about 'Musical Sit'? Everybody mingles around and the last dog to sit when the music stops is eliminated?

We have quite a few games we play at our dog club Christmas party, mostly in teams of 4 or 5 run like a relay race. Things like each pair in turn has to weave through some cones, do a sit walk round dog, round a chair in the end, weave back. Or there are 3 hoops laid in a line for each team, each pair has to put the hoop over both themselves and the dog (not at the same time for bigger dogs!), which is a good test of the dog's trust to allow the owner to lead them through a hoop or pass the hoop over the dog. Or we've had races where you have to put a shirt on yourself and a shirt on the dog, do the weaves, take them off at the other end and so on. All sorts of variants!

I have been inspired! Going to suggest the hoops and the shirt game, I can't wait till next year! Thank you so much and keep them coming, they may inspire someone else!