Start the New Year Right: Fun and Easy Training Games for You and Your Pup

Adding games like peek-a-boo to your training sessions can be fun and beneficial. photo: AdobeStock

How about some fun new training games to play in 2022? Just choose a few simple training exercises and do them with your dog every day for 30 seconds to 3 minutes, 2-3 times a day. Keep it short and your dog will always want more. 

Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. RECALL

If you only teach your dog one thing, definitely choose recall - someday, it might very well save his Iife. I teach my clients two types, one for emergencies and one for everyday use.

a. ER Recall

First choose a spot in your kitchen while your dog is in the vicinity but doing his own thing. Then choose one novel word or sound and one novel, but especially high value, treat. Now, from that spot in your kitchen, make your novel sound or say your word in the highest pitch, most cheerlead-y way you can. Jump around, yell, and clap like he just won the biggest ever reinforcement lottery. As soon as your dog attends to you in any way (this can be as subtle as a cocked ear to a full-on running towards you to see what his crazy, fun human is doing), immediately give the high value treat. That’s it for Day One. 

On Day Two, repeat the exact same actions two to three times a day. To be clear, you’re only doing the actions once each time, but you’re spreading them out throughout the day. 

After Day Two, you can start moving your training fun around the house, to other rooms and then to the backyard. Again, you’re only doing the actions once, but repeating them two or three times a day. Once you’ve both mastered this, you can take your training show on the road, practicing recall at increasingly greater distances. After about six to seven days, you should have instilled a reliable ER Recall, which could very well save your dog’s life in an emergency.

b. Daily Recall Dance
For everyday non-emergency use, you should be able to get your dog’s attention by using these steps:

• Bend over 

• Clap hands and thighs

• Shuffle backwards 

• Call in a high-pitched, cheerleading voice (but not same as ER recall voice)

• Treat the dog as he moves towards you and away from whatever competing stimulus was pulling him away. 

Key Recall Rules

Here are a few important rules to ensure a safe, successful recall. 

Predict/Prevent
Be aware of your environment so that you can predict and prevent a distraction that might pull your dog away from you. This way, you can do the recall before the dog is distracted and already moving quickly towards the distraction. 

Pay, Pay, Pay!
Always be prepared to give your dog something it will want more than any competing distraction. This means making sure you take some high value treats with you on any outing.

Do Not Repeat
Say the recall word or do the recall dance only once, even if it’s prolonged. Repeating it immediately just trains your dog that you’ll keep saying it, meaning she can decide if and/or when she responds - or that she only has to respond after you’ve said it nine times. 

Never Use Recall to Punish a Dog in Any Way
Aside from the fact that punishment backfires and does not work, using recall to discipline a dog will instantly turn your recall into something that means bad things are going to happen. And no one wants to move towards bad things!

Use Only When Your Dog Is Going to Hear You
If your dog is in the throes of a wrestling match with his new dog park bestie, it’s not a good time to try to pretend you are more exciting. Dogs take breaks to catch their breath. Wait for that and then try to get your dog’s attention. Also, call your dog several times every time you are on an adventure, always pay with a treat or play or anything fun and exciting, and then send your dog back to his friends or to explore or to whatever he was doing. This way, you are not just using recall to take him away from all the fun and go home. 

Finally, as noted above, always try to predict and prevent, rather than waiting until it’s too late and your dog is already rolling in the stinky mess of a dead seal on Fort Funston (true story). Face it, you will never compete with a dead seal. Your dog is already busy filling out the USPS change of address while you are trying to call him back to you. 

2. PEEK-A-BOO

This is an easy one that’s fun for you both. Just pop behind anything (a couch, a door, whatever) and then pop back out. This simple exercise teaches your pup that when you disappear, you come back. It’s great for preventing separation disorders from developing at any stage in life. 

3. FUN FUN FUN!

Always be the most animated and reinforcing thing around and your dog will always want to be with you more than whatever other questionable behavior they might have had in mind. This one simple step is often the solution to interrupting, predicting, and stopping a myriad of unwanted behaviors. 

The combination of these few training exercises will have you and your pup enjoying a new and improved quality of life in no time. Just remember, no matter what, always have fun. Your dog will thank you for it!