If someone comes to me with a behaviour problem, one of the first questions I ask is “how much exercise does your dog get?”. There is often a definite link between the mental and physical stimulation a dog receives and the amount of trouble the dog gets into. Exercising your dog or puppy can be easy and done within your home.
The games I’m sharing are great ways to engage your dog’s brain and body if you can’t get out, or you have an injury that means you can’t go for your usual walks or outings with your dog.
In the episode you'll hear:
- Why dogs need exercise and how you can include this in daily life.
- 20 easy games to play with your puppy or dog.
- How to use what you have at home to engage your dog’s mind and body.
Resources:
Episode Transcript
I shall try some of these with my 5mo corgi pup, they’ll be especially useful for an upcoming period when we’ll have to be shielding ahead of a surgical procedure in the family. Gwion is very high-energy and too clever for his own good sometimes, so anything to make him mentally tired is a blessing! He likes tug, and I’ve done a bit of magic cups with him too. I also started to teach him dog-appropriate colour names recently (blue, yellow, green, white), using kids’ building blocks (same shapes, different colours). He seems to have the hang of blue now, although what he mostly wants is to run off with a block and chew it!
Susan I really enjoyed this podcast and am excited to try these games. I plan to start teaching the stand tomorrow. Thank you
This is a great podcast on how to exercise your pups! So many gems – I have to write them down.
We have an area of the porch/deck that we can close off so that the dogs are confined on the deck when we want them to be outside without having to watch them every minute. In the winter, when there has been several inches of snow, we shovel the snow up into a “dog mountain” and then throw a handfull of treats or Cheerios up onto the mountain. The dogs love to dig into the snow to find the cookies! Keeps them busy for a little while!
These are great! I cant wait to play the cup game. My dog is great with doggy pushups. Great for his muscles. Hide and seek is my favourite game I have always played hide and seek with him. He finds me everytime. I think I need to find some better spots to hide
Wow, this is the reference of the 20 ultimate foundation games! Love all these! Pop up stand is one of my favourites, but my sheltie does get rather vocally excited when we play! For ladder game, I don’t have a ladder but use the lids of copier paper boxes in a line. They are also light and move out of place a bit so the dogs learn to cope with things that behave a unpredictably as well. This game also generates a lot of excitement!
Thank you for providing such great education and commentary! I am learning so much every time I listen. I wonder if you can provide recommendations on how to increase your dogs exposure to new activities while still maintaining their attention and composure. For example, I practice loose leash walking with my dogs in our neighborhood every day. Today we took the dogs to a local park for a walk and they were WILD. Eventually they calmed down and we could enjoy our walk.
This is brilliant Susan. As I live in a high rainfall area , 😣 ( we were young and naive when we bought the property and not to mention it was in the middle of summer ! ) , it’s not always easy to get outdoors to exercise. So thiis podcast was a great suprise . Dream of having a great big indoor area like yours .😊
Runi and I are loving our first time in Recallers and the ” Shaped by Dog ” podcasts are very informative and inspiring……… Fantastic !!! Kind Regards Lyn
Love these games . About to start with my puppy . Thanks heaps Susan