Puppy Training Games She Can Learn In 10 Minutes
Good puppy training games not only help to forge better bond between you and your puppy, they also provide the daily dose of stimulation required for healthy growth both mentally and physically.
The games listed below are designed for quick sessions in mind, aimed at sharpening focus and more importantly, boost their confidence.
These games are also designed to be quick to set-up and play so that with some initial supervising, even your kids can help with the training!
Introducing the 5 puppy training games
Puppy bowling
Call your puppy through a group of bowling pins and see how many pins she can knock over!
This can also be a fun 2-player game (not including your puppy) with one person at either end of the hallway. Set up the pins between the players and take turns calling your puppy. The one who gets her to knock over the most pins win!
Some puppies tend to worry about getting themselves hurt. This game helps to boost their confident and accustom themselves around loud sounds when they knock over the pins. Feel free to switch it up by replacing the pins with empty soda cans or plastic bottles.
- Set up bowling pins in a hallway, with one person at either end (For 2-player).
- Call your puppy to you with a treat in your hand. When she runs through the pins to you knocking them over, praise and give her a treat.
- Give this game a name. “Bowling”, “Bowl”, “Crash” or whatever make sense to you and repeat this game’s name whenever she knocks over the pins.
- Reset the pins and have the other player call out the game’s name from his end of the hallway this time.
If your puppy runs around the pins instead of through them, set up barriers on the side of the pins to prevent her from “cheating”.
If she tends to jump over them especially bigger puppies, spread the pins further apart. Praise and reward lavishly when she manages to knock down some pins. Also, holding the treat closer to the floor when playing the game will help discourage jumping.
Going through the tunnel
You need a child's play tunnel for this. It might not seem like it but going through a tunnel can be a tense experience for your puppy! With patience and consistency, your puppy will muster the courage and confident to navigate through the tunnel in time.
If your puppy is reluctant to go anywhere near the tunnel, collapse to shorten the tunnel and put some tasty treats inside it and let her explore it on her own. Don’t forget to praise!
- Collapse the tunnel making it very short and put a weight (paper weight, sand bag, etc) in it to keep the tunnel stable when your puppy goes through it.
- Squat or sit near the tunnel exit (not too near that you obstruct the exit, leave room for your puppy to come out). Make eye contact and call out to your puppy to go through the tunnel to reach you with a treat visible in your hand.
- It helps to have another family member beside her coaxing her into the tunnel. Remember; coax but never force or try to push her through.
- It may take some time, be patience. When she does go through the tunnel, reward and praise her as soon as she exits the tunnel.
- Expend the tunnel a little at a time with progression. Take it slow. If she reaches a point where she refuse to proceed, shorten the tunnel to the previous length and go from there again.
Give this game a name and use it whenever you are about to play. “Tunnel”, “Hole” or anything that make sense to you but not too common a phrase which you might accidentally said it in everyday conversations.
Spinning
Teach your puppy to spin circles by following your hand!
During the training phase, always use a treat. As your puppy improves, she will reach a point where she will spin just by following your hand without any treats, thou you should still reward her with one from your pocket at the end of a set.
- Face your puppy and get her attention with a treat in your right hand.
- Give this game a name and in this example, we shall call it “Spin”. Say” Spin” and move your right hand slowly to your right side. Your puppy should follow your hand closely with her nose.
- Continue to move your hand slowly forward than back to your side in a big circular motion while keeping your hand at nose-level height of your puppy.
- Once your puppy has completed a circle following your hand, open your hand and let her have the treat. Rinse and repeat about 10 times per day, doing the same for your left hand too.
- As she improves, start to make tighter and faster circles and watch her spins like a top!
The key here is getting her to focus and follow your hand at all time so only use treats she truly desire and make sure to go slow during the learning stage.
This is a great introductory to puppy training games as it teaches your puppy the concept of focus and training with you. Not to mention burning up all those pent-up energies too!
Roll over
Teach your puppy to barrel roll from lying on her stomach position, on to her back and then back to her stomach again! An easy to learn yet classic among puppy training games.
- With your puppy lying stomach down, hold a treat in front of her nose.
- Tell your puppy to “Roll” and move the treat very slowly from her nose to her shoulder. She should be closely following your treat hand and shift onto one hip. Congratulations! Reward her with the treat with praises!
- Now repeat step 1 and 2 but continue moving your hand slowly pass her shoulder toward her backbone. She will roll onto her back while trying to follow the treat.
- Come full circle so that she is on her stomach again…and she did it! Give her the treat immediately and be generous with the praises!
It helps but not necessary to teach this trick on a gentle slope as following your hand and rolling down-slope is more natural for your puppy.
Finally, work this trick on a soft surface like a carpet or grass. Rolling on hard surface repeatedly is not comfortable for your little one.
Memory game
Puppy training games are great bonding time not just for you and your puppy, get your kids involved too!To start off you need 3 small pails or small bowls and some dog treats. The goal of the game is letting your puppy guess which pail contains the treat!
This is perhaps one of the more mentally stimulating activity among this list of puppy training games.
- Set 2 identical pails a few feet apart. Get your puppy to stay (if she is trained) or have someone hold her collar about a meter away from the pails.
- Show your puppy as you put a treat into one of the pails.
- Tell her to “Find it”! If she goes to the correct pail, she gets the treat inside! If she goes to the wrong pail, stop her from investigating the other pail. Instead, put her back to her stay area and start again.
- Once your puppy gets the right pail consistently, it’s time to increase the difficulty by using 3 pails. You can also increase the stay distance between her and the pails before a game begins.
Puppies tend to go straight to the last pail that produced the treat. You can help by putting the pails further apart from each other, eliminating her urge to sniff check every pail within her reach and making mistakes. Keep practicing!
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