Rainy Day Games, or New Tricks with an Old Sock

[Kayleegator]

OK, so I'm (trying to) work from home with a busy-brained BC pup. Kaylee is 4 1/2 months old now, and would spend all her time at the Dog Park or digging up my garden, given her druthers. She's not exactly stir-crazy, but she needs activity, and I've got to try to get something done.

 

My DH and I walk her for a mile or so and play with her for the first couple of hours of every day, Fetch and Tug, for the most part. DH plays 'Monster' and 'Hide n Seek' in the house with her, too. Once in a while she'll go Crackerdog, also known as the Zoomies, and run around our little house as fast as she can, to the horror of the cats.

 

She's got lots of toys, Kongs, tennis balls, etc. but she prefers fuzzy textures, things she can get her teeth into (and shred, if possible). She's dug a couple of holes in carpets, so has to be watched about that. The favorite toy of all is the Beloved Sock Tug, two of my husband's socks knotted together. At least they used to be socks. Now it's just a ragged ball of fiber that we keep tying up on itself.

 

She's taught herself new games: take 2-3 toys and push them around and under table legs so she can pounce on them on the other side. Take a toy and stuff it under a piece of furniture, then dig at it until a person gets it out again. Yeah. My water spray bottle had to come out, for that one. She doesn't really retrieve: it's far more interesting to play Keep. I'm working on that. She'll trade a ball for Sock, but not the other way 'round.

 

Sock is the only toy she will Drop. So we can throw it for her. Racketball in the hallway. She's learning mid-air catch. Sock is the favorite Tug toy, too, seconded by a rope tug with a bone threaded on it.

 

This morning I remembered a dog game my friend taught her Scotty, which is Find It! I wrapped the Sock up loosely in an old towel, and taught Kaylee 'Find It!' and it's kept her (and me) busy for at least half an hour now. Did I mention she likes to dig?

 

What games does your BC play?

 

[philip4420]

The joy of BC games.

 

Dale loves any game involving a ball. Balls have to be guarded eyed and chased at all times.

 

Next come tug games with his rope which can then be chewed. Chewing is still one of his favourite occupations but at least now he seems to have given up on the flooring

 

We also spend time hiding toys around the house and garden. This is also a good way to practice sit stays while I wander around looking for new hiding places.

 

Then there's the clicker. Dale loves finding new ways to make me click and did I mention gardening? He's always ready to help with digging.

 

He also tries to help with housework. How did I manage the hoover before I had him to herd it for me? Or dusting with no dog trying to grab my duster.

 

I'm busy trying to encourage him to play the sleepy time game but he finds that harder somehow. So instead we're playing at agility in the garden. He's still too young to do too much but he loves chasing in and out of the tunnel.

[Meg's mum]

I had to laugh at the title of your post. Here in the Pacific Northwest...the monsoon season has been on us for a couple of weeks. I've got 100' trees whirling around me, six inches of mud under my feet, and my Meg dunked in a puddle looking at me with that burn through your soul anticipation of the ball flinger starting to arc.

Here's my advice. I have a high energy, high prey drive girl.

 

Crating to start teaching down times. We use "settle down"

Put blankies and pillow and chew toy...bullystick...etc near your chair...

Sacrifice rolls of paper towels...not really hard to clean up...but the sheer joy of being able to make such a dramatic mess keeps them busy for at least a half hour provided she does not have an inclination to swallow the bits...Meg does not.

Make sure the workout in the morning and evening is really challenging physically and mentally.

 

At about 18 months if you are lucky, she will learn to settle down, turn off, chill out...until then....try to resist the whining and barking at you and don't give in. Have a long talk with cats and show them all the places to escape for peace and quiet.

 

Good luck:)

[sandra s.]

Finding hidden treats is their favourite, I think. Kessie very much likes to unpack things, although you have to make sure that you won't be needing the package afterwards .

 

Kyla loves searching for her squeaky. She especially loves it when we try to trick her (by pretending to hold the squeaky behind one's back and then quickly hiding it under the blankets with the other hand once she comes around to investigate, etc). She's brainy and not easy to cheat, and she knows it and likes it.

[jzdrojowy]

My Lindee has a favorite game that she plays in the house. She puts her stuffed frog or sheep in her mouth then proceeds to play "soccer" with her orange glow-in-the-dark rubber ball. It's hilarious watching her. She'll use her nose or her foot to move the ball around and she's REALLY good at it. she can move it over barriers and around objects. She can get that ball moving pretty fast too...all with her stuff fluffy of choice hanging out of her mouth.

 

Another fun game she plays with herself is to either A) put one or more toys into her baggy (it's a cloth bag with a crinkly liner made for cats that our cat hated but Lindee LOVES) and then try to get them back out or B ) put her baggy over another toy and try to pick them both up at the same time.

 

She's a lovable nut.

[Kayleegator]

Kaylee will happily shred Lindee's fluffies, she's sure they need it! She plays soccer, too, is building skill. I think it's a sign of a VID, Very Intelligent Dog. We know a dog (Shar Pei/Rottweiller mix) who is SO good at soccer that he can flip rubber toys up in the air with his feet and catch them in his mouth!

 

Hiding toys and treats around the house, and introducing a squeaky, are excellent suggestions. The first squeaky we gave Kaylee was rather alarming, but she was able to shred the fluffy it was in anyway.

 

I do like Dale's sit-stay practice, with hiding toys around the house. We are currently working hard on down-stay during mealtimes. Dog logic says that if you sloowwwly squirm along on your belly in the direction of the cat, or better still, underneath the chair of someone who is eating, you are still technically 'Down'.

 

A pig ear is a good thing. When you've demolished it in record time, but before the conference call is over, be sure to wipe your mouth all over the carpet, so you can have something to sniff and rip at later. It makes Ma laugh and gets her in trouble.

 

Heidi, I wish I had your (albeit stormy) acreage to run this girl on. We're still working on recall, so we can run off-leash on the football field, but we're not there yet. The dayglo Flying Squirrel works as a visual recall, but if I dare throw the thing, I'll never get it back without an awful lot of trudging about, sigh. I need to get out a long line and work with that, as hot dogs are totally passe now.

[Jim2000]

My Kaylee loves to throw toys ubder the couch also, I believe that has been established that that is a common trait of quite few of the BC's. in the house she LOVES her "Fribby"(thats frisbee). outside she wont touch a frisbee but loves her half deflated soccer ball or her all time favorite.. The tennis ball launcher. The new puppy dixies favorite game to play is chase and bite kaylee whenever she chases something! there is nothing funnier than watching Kaylle come ruuning back to me so i can kick her ball again with little Dixie attached to her cheek.

[Kayleegator]

there is nothing funnier than watching Kaylle come ruuning back to me so i can kick her ball again with little Dixie attached to her cheek.

 

 

Oh, Jim, that is such a great visual! My girl got to play with a 6-month-old 85-lb mastiff the other night, and she took him DOWN... often by the cheek. Shiney, Capm!

[Beth G]

My two love to beat on the basket balls in the house, wrestle, or tug on their big ball with a rope inside. Pepper keeps herself busy hiding goodies in the couch(rawhides & toys).

[nowwown]

Ha! I thought Cody was the only dog to push his toys under the couch, then dig, scrape and generally ruin the whole bottom of the sofa to get it back out.

 

After MONTHS of spray bottles, "NO!!!" and other things, plus a destroyed leather sofa bottom, we finally got him to "speak" when the toy was stuck under the sofa.

 

Now, he politely barks once when his toy "somehow" gets under there. He waits for a few moments, then if we didn't DROP EVERYTHING-RUSH RIGHT OVER to lay down on the floor, cheek to floor, to pull out whatever toy is there, he BARKS again, a little more angrily and lustily. Four or five times a day, a toy somehow finds its way under the sofa. I can assure you though that there are NO dust bunnies there, just his toys!

[LovaBelle]

A favorite in our house is drop the tug, ball, kong, squeeky jack, etc. down the basement stairs and fight each other down the stairs to try and get it first. Belle started this game before we got Jake. It was nice, whenever I was busy cleaning or whatever, I would open the basement door and tell her to go play on the stairs and off she would go. Now it's just a contest for both of them. They crack me up.

[Kayleegator]

A favorite in our house is drop the tug, ball, kong, squeeky jack, etc. down the basement stairs and fight each other down the stairs to try and get it first. Belle started this game before we got Jake. It was nice, whenever I was busy cleaning or whatever, I would open the basement door and tell her to go play on the stairs and off she would go. Now it's just a contest for both of them. They crack me up.

 

 

HOW FUNNY! Do you remember the old kid's riddle, "What's black n white n black n white n black n white n black n white?" It used to be 'a nun falling down stairs', but now it's two BCs playing on the stairs!