Puppy and I spend a solid undivided hour and a half in the morning before I get ready for work. He likes ball-on-string and likes his toys. But everything is getting a little "old hat".

Does anyone have any suggestions for fun games we can play? It's still dark and chilly out in the morning when we get up, so indoor games tend to be preferred (by me anyways).

Thanks!
David C

PS - Or should I just stick with a routine?

If your puppy gets fed in the mornings you could play hide and seek, let him watch you place a piece of food on the ground, then say "find it" and let him go eat, then you could put a piece of food behind the sofa or in different rooms. You can also do this with his favorite toys.

Teach him to 'wait', put a piece of food under your hand, say 'wait', then ok, and remove your hand, gradually move your hand away from the food as he catches on.

Teach him to look at you, show him a piece of food and put it between him and your eyes, you can add the word 'look' and then gradually move the next pieces of food further away from your face out to the side, so that he learns that if he looks you in the eyes, he gets good things.

Teach him to target, have a piece of dowel about a foot long, and when he touches it give him a piece of food. Then you can put your target on the ground and have him go to it.

Try not to think of formal training as formal, sits, downs, all of it should be fun for a puppy and can then be done as part of your play session.

If you are interested in clicker training, there are a lot of books on different tricks you can teach. This kind of training is great fun with a puppy and can be done at mealtimes, so he learns to do things for his dinner.

Louise

AWESOME!

I can't wait to try out some of these.

DHC

 Quote:

Originally posted by David Chau:
Or should I just stick with a routine?

David,

I wouldn't stick to any routine for playing or training and I also try not to stick to a routine for feeding. Otherwise it will be hell when you are too occupied at that particular time he is going to wreck havoc and start yelling for "where the heck is my food????" "Hey this is now my play time.....I want it nowwwww!!!!!" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> If you catch my drift. Also as an aim in training always do not let the dog to anticipate your next move otherwise it will be too "paterned training" or "chereograph training" which the dog will be ahead of you everytime.